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Removing the Plank from Your Own Eye

12/28/2019

 
Introduction. One of Jesus’ more intriguing warnings and commands in the Sermon on the Mount centers on removing a plank that we might have in our eye. He made it very clear that if we want to help our friends, family and brethren overcome their weaknesses and help them get to heaven, we must first address this plank. He used the Greek term for the main support beam in a house. His hearers would envision someone with a ten to twenty-foot plank, beam or log in their eye. Clearly with such an impediment, we would be incapable of being of any help to those we love, regardless of the tiny small speck they have irritating their eye and hindering them from growing.
“And why do you look at the mote/speck in your brother’s eye, but do not consider the beam/plank/log in your own eye? 4 Or how can you say to your brother, ‘Let me remove the speck from your eye’; and look, a plank is in your own eye? 5 Hypocrite! First remove the plank from your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye.” (Mt. 7:3-5)
 
Jesus was not trying to be humorous. Although it is ludicrous to think that any person so incapacitated could be of any help to anyone, it is not funny! If we still have this beam in our own eye, we would be a hindrance to everyone we sought to help. When it comes to judging others and giving them advice, there are multitudes who are so harsh, and so overcome with their own pride and folly, that whatever they do for others is just as hopeless as that man with a plank in his eye!
 
What we should find most startling is that those with this plank are not even aware that it exists. They stand ready to remove the slightest flaw in those around them, but are incapable of being of any help. Have we searched our hearts to see if we have this beam in our own eye?

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    Alan Hitchen

    Alan is a preacher for the Holly Street church of Christ in Denver, CO. He has preached in various other locations in his +35 year career.  He is also active in spreading the Gospel to Malawi, Africa.

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