"Beams, Motes, and Things That Go Bump"

Scripture Reading: Matthew 7
Scripture Text:"Give not that which is holy unto the dogs, neither cast ye your pearls before swine, lest they trample them under their feet, and turn again and rend you." Matt 7:6 (KJV)

We return today to experience mankind through the eyes of Christ. We see by our scriptures that he gets to the nitty-gritty of "so-called" piety of mankind. 

Now, lest anyone wonder why I skipped verses 1-5 of chapter 7 - I didn't. I just believe the Lord wanted us to see the depth of their judgment and hypocrisy - and there was really no better way to do that than to go right to the 6th verse.

Let me try and explain to you what they're speaking of here. A "dog" was considered to be lower than dirt in the pecking order of life. I would guess that if one did a study on the population of dogs during that day - one might find that there were so many dogs they would run wild in packs. It was nothing like the laws we have in many of our towns today about seeing to it that dogs do not run wild and are spayed at an early enough age so that they can not continue to overpopulate. It seems like that has been a problem that I have heard about in every town I've been in over the past 40 years. But, what I wanted to report to you is that in my research I found that a person wasn't even allowed to bring in the "price" of a dog or the price of a lady of the evening into the house of the Lord to pay their tithes or as the WORD puts it - vow. (ref., Deut 28:18)

I said all of that to say this. THESE WERE RELIGIOUS ZEALOTS who would persecute their own mother for the right to stand in the synagogues or amongst their friends and be called righteous. In fact, were talking about the very people that became the judge and jury of the very SON OF GOD and they crucified Him.

So Jesus - probably not thinking as much about the cross as what He had seen from the realms of Glory before he even came to Earth as a man... the Injustices and unkindness of man to man - says...

"Or how wilt thou say to thy brother, Let me pull out the mote out of thine eye; and, behold, a beam is in thine own eye? Thou hypocrite, first cast out the beam out of thine own eye; and then shalt thou see clearly to cast out the mote out of thy brother's eye." Mat 7:5,6 (KJV)

I don't know about you but in our 37 years of marriage I've heard about my own life from my dear wife when I would point out the wrongs of someone else. She never mentioned anything about a "beam" - but she sure cleared up a few things for me in the process. And lest someone think she is one of those filled with a false sense of piety let me tell you, she quietly struggles every day with her desire to be more like Jesus and the realization that she is not what she "could" be for Him in every situation. I have so many times listened as "through tears" of shere remorse she would recount how she could have done this better and how she could have been more like Jesus in some other instance... stuff I probably  would have just walked away from - thinking it was hopeless. But she never gives up and she never broods over it because she knows that it is through the Power of Christ alone that there is victory. I wish I could be more like her at times in her quest as a servant of the Lord. Her faith is not a "feigned love" or a "delusive word" - she is real.

What I am trying to say here is that if a poor little country girl from Missouri can do it, we can too. Do what? See mankind through the eyes of Jesus. Not for the purpose of judgment or verbal scathing, but for the purpose of bringing them to Jesus in love.

Is that tantamount to being a spiritual washout? You know... having no grit to stand up to the injustices of the world today. No! Not at all. It just means that we may need to be on our knees a bit longer and dig into the Bible a bit deeper so that when those times come - we will be grounded in The WORD and not our wild passions.

So Friend

"Judge not, that ye be not judged. For with what judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged: and with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again." Mat 7:1,2 

Let's Pray...

Father: I am not perfect - and that's something I am sure of. yet, I tend at times to be so judgmental when I know that in many respects I've got many short-comings of my own. Father, I thank you for your reminder here in these verses today to see others through eyes of love and with a heart for evangelism. It is my prayer that in all that I do - I will be more like You. In Jesus' Name, Amen.