Splinters from logs

Love doesn't judge; love doesn't condemn; love forgives and love gives.

I find myself evaluating my lifestyle today because I don't want to be a hypocrite. I am seeing alot of facebook replies that are talking about "this person said this or that" or "I hate you because you did 'xyz'"
I realized that I have made this mistake before. I rarely use the word "hate" but I might as well use it when people "tick" me off. But I was reminded this morning about how Jesus looked at this issue. Reading from Luke 6:37-42 I was quickly reminded about how I should respond.

The passage talks about using a certain measure. I came to the conclusion that this has two approaches: 1) the measure or standard is something set by me or 2) the measure or standard is set by Christ. Many times, I like to set the standard because I want to "get back" or "say my thoughts" about something someone said or did to me. But, I quickly realized that whatever my measure is, whatever my standard, either my self-righteousness or the standard that Christ shows, will be returned to me. Maybe not today or tomorrow but sometime soon. I think like most of us, we choose the first standard.

It's like this: I am a Christ-follower. I can't lead people, if I am blinded by my own self-righteousness. It's like Jesus said, "a blind man can't lead a blind man." I look at my life as a leader, pastor, husband, etc. and understand that I can't lead any of these areas if I, myself, am blinded by my own self-righteousness. I mean who are we to lead others or give council or show love, if we can't lead ourselves?

That's where the whole log in the eye comes from. How can we as Christ-followers tell others how to live if the splinters from the logs in our eyes are causing others pain and they turn away from Jesus? We can't. I think this is why Jesus was telling this to his disciples. You can't lead others or see others accept my forgiveness if you can't see your wrongs first. It reminds me of Romans 3:10-18 when it says that "no man is righteous; not even one." For many of us, we think that just because of our titles and prestige, we have the authority over others. We have been doing this longer than others. Wrong! We are in the same boat whether we have Christ or not. I am not righteous, far from it. So what would happen if more Christ-followers removed the logs from their eyes and healed the wounds that the splinters have caused in the lives of others?

We must first allow the only person that can fix us, fix us and that person is Jesus. Secondly, we must be forgiven of our wrongs before forgiveness can be received by others. So let's stop the self-righteousness, admit when we are wrong, show love the way that love was shown to us and make the standard of our lives the standard which Christ gave us: "love the Lord with all you heart, soul and mind and love you neighbor as yourself." ok?

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