Matins Devotion: October 2, 2024

Matthew 7:1-12

When Jesus tells us to remove the log from our own eye before we remove the speck from our neighbor’s eye, what does He mean? Well, there’s a sense in which Jesus is calling out the foolish imbalance of the self-righteous. There’s a sense in which He’s saying, “hey, instead of judging your neighbor for failing to tithe his spices, why don’t you worry about the bigger sin afflicting your own heart, namely the fact that you hate your God by hating your neighbor.”

But there’s also another sense for us to receive these words, a sense in which Jesus isn’t talking about the size of sins in terms of their wretchedness but in terms of their danger. If your neighbor has murdered someone, of course that sin is bigger than if you simply have hatred in your heart for someone. But your neighbor’s bigger sin of murder isn’t the thing that condemns you. Your sins condemn you, and so the hatred in your heart is a log that prevents you from seeing God’s will clearly. And no matter how much bigger his sins are, you can’t lead your neighbor away from the pit of condemnation with his eyes. You need to use your eyes to do so, and you can’t do that until you remove the thing that prevents you from seeing clearly.

So remove the log from your eye by having it washed out with the blood of Christ. Run to Christ and His forgiveness. Watch His nail-pierced hands reach down from Calvary and remove the log that prevents you from seeing His salvation. And then, only after you have been rescued from the sins that condemned you, lead your neighbor away from the pit of his own digging.