Matthew 7:3
And why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brother’s eye, but considerest not the beam that is in thine own eye?

We know ourselves well, and often we know our sins well. They are the ones we never mention and the ones we try so hard to hide. Maybe they’re the ones we try to keep and stubbornly refuse to repent of. Maybe they’re the ones we’ve pushed down so deep, we barely recognize them as sins because they are so ingrained in us. And then we go around pointing out the specks that mar other people’s lives when we’re so blinded by the sin in our own that we can’t see where we’re going.

It doesn’t do much good to always be criticizing others without analyzing our own spiritual condition. We often have ourselves fooled into thinking we’re doing just fine when God’s trying to extract a beam from our eye. Maybe it’s time to stop being shortsighted and take a good long look in the mirror and get our own hearts right before we try to fix something in someone else’s life. Because when we’ve humbled ourselves to that place and allowed God to dig that thing out of us, we’re well enough and able enough to truly help someone else with a spirit of love instead of judgment.

Our spiritual health is important. And not only does Jesus warn us about being hypocritical or judgmental or overly critical of others, but He doesn’t want us to sink into spiritual blindness and refuse to see the truth about ourselves. It is for our own good that we keep ourselves free of known sin in our lives, for then God is more able to work in and through us. Isn’t it always a relief to pull a splinter out, to finally have that foreign body removed so that the wound can heal and the hole can close? So before we condemn others, let’s ask God to remove those things hindering our own walk with Him.

And then when we know we’re right with the Lord, when we’re following His lead and have confessed our sins, then He just may use us to help someone else when we can see clearly enough to remove the mote from their eye. Maybe we can intercede for them while their issue is still small before it gets as big as the beam that we had to deal with. Maybe that healing wound we’re left with will instill some compassion in us and help us be more sensitive and less harsh toward those struggling around us. And with the new clear vision we’ve gained by removing those beams from our eyes, let us seek the Lord and His will for us.