“Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye?” Matthew 7:3 NIV
This verse has always been an interesting verse to me. Human nature is interesting to me. Very few people want to be held accountable for their actions and most people do not like to admit when they are wrong, but it is in our nature to call others out. Why do we judge? The answer is quite simple, we would rather look at others actions than have to admit our actions and make changes. We don’t like change, we like things to remain the same, to be constant. However, the only constant in our world IS change.
Why is it so hard for us to acknowledge our behaviors? If we did, then we would have to admit that we are not perfect. Our pride, a characteristic we sometimes don’t like to admit we have, could be harmed. This verse is part of the Sermon on the Mount where Jesus has been talking about how to live life by modeling it after Him. As I read this verse I usually only see part of the meaning, but after doing some research in commentaries and other translations, I learned that there is another way of looking at this verse.
We should not judge, that is simple, I see that in this verse but what I didn’t see was the idea of looking at others and then comparing them to yourself. It sits in the background of the meaning. Obviously when we are judging others we are looking at them and then comparing them to ourselves to show that we are “not as bad” or our sin isn’t “as big of a sin”. However, the mere act of looking at someone else and then comparing them to ourselves can also become a behavior that may lead us to sin.
We should all be held accountable for our own actions, but that is for God to do, not those around us and not us in regards to others. When we focus solely on others and believe that we have to make sure that we are not like this person, which is called judging, or focus on looking at others to see how much we don’t measure up to that person, which can lead to feeling inferior, we are not living the way Jesus wants us to live.
We are placing a lot pf pressure on ourselves to behave in such a way as to be like or not be like someone else. The only ‘Being’ that we should be focused on being like is Jesus. Judging others and comparing ourselves to others are both hard behaviors to stop, but when we do, we can experience peace because we are not focused on others any longer and we can focus on Jesus more.