May 19

Begin at Home

You hypocrite! First take the beam out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye. — Matt 7:5 BSB

Start with yourself—that’s the teaching. Not at home in the general sense with your family, but right at home with yourself. It’s much easier to pick out the small faults in others than to face our own major shortcomings. But we aren’t here to focus on others’ faults or to remove the specks from their eyes. Our primary job is to work on our own. At the very least, we’re not equipped to help someone else with their small issues if we’re blinded by our own greater ones. We aren’t really ready to help our friends with their faults until we’ve sincerely tried to address our own.

We all know people whose mere presence serves as a silent rebuke to sin. Their lives are pure and holy, and they naturally influence others to avoid wrongdoing. We often hear that one of the best tests of friendship is if a friend can point out our faults and we accept it graciously. That, however, depends on both us and our friend. If we’re proud and vain, it will be difficult for any friend, no matter how wise or gentle, to point out our faults without risking the friendship. On the other hand, if the friend addresses our faults in a self-righteous or critical manner, it’s also dangerous. To truly help remove the specks from our eyes, a friend must approach us in love, showing genuine, unselfish concern. They must come to us humbly, not as a judge, but as a fellow traveler, aware of their own faults and trying to overcome them. If they approach us with this kind of humility, reflecting Christ’s love, only deep vanity or pride could prevent us from accepting their help.