A Man Points at the Speck in His Brother's Eyeby CBPepper
7:3Matthew 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?
To notice and criticize a small fault in a brother while overlooking and remaining blind to one's own far greater fault is hypocrisy and unjust judgment. The small fault is a little mistake in manner, word or act, while the greater fault is the critic's own lack of love, selfishness and faultfinding spirit that obstructs vision and impairs judgment. The required order is first to examine, acknowledge and cast out one's own fault, and only then will one see clearly to help the brother with wise and loving help. When plain truth must be spoken to bring reform, it must be done with pitying tenderness and Christlike sympathy rather than harshness, severity or accusation, remembering one's own weakness. Dwelling on a brother's faults magnifies a molehill into a mountain until contention and disunion result, doing the devil's work and grieving Christ and the Holy Spirit.
Setting and Word Pictures
Matthew 7:3 belongs to the Sermon on the Mount, spoken especially to the disciples while the gathered multitude also heard. It teaches the foundation principles of the kingdom of God, principles of divine grace rather than promises of earthly glory or political freedom, and they remain as important now as for the multitude that followed Him. In that sermon false education was undone to give a right conception of His kingdom and of His own character, disappointing hope of worldly greatness, teaching something infinitely better than had been known, telling the conditions of entrance into the kingdom and leaving hearers to draw their own conclusions as to its nature without direct attack on errors or vivid delineation of wretchedness from sin. It in every way opposed and virtually contradicted the theories, practice and doctrines of the self-righteous scribes and Pharisees, who presented human ideas and endless maxims and traditions as proceeding from God without His authority and so misrepresented God as a stern judge incapable of compassion, mercy and love, while sweeping away misrepresentation to restore confidence in the love of God and to present God in paternal love as Our Father. Its far-reaching principles show that the state of the heart regulates the life and character, so that understanding God's law requires having its spirit in the heart. Its lessons are to be shown in the way people live, for living them makes a deeper and more lasting impression than preaching alone.
The mote is a small fault, mistake, little difference, quibble, atom, or supposed error in a brother. It includes manner, dress, little acts and words, watched for and spent many words in reproof over until irritation results. Such a small defect in another's manner, when magnified as though it were a world when it is only an atom, reveals self-living and lack of true nobility of character, while priding oneself on refined gestures. Making much of such a small item or quibble as a pretext for sharp, prolonged criticism, holding up decisions and wearing others down, is sinful and does not glorify God, calling instead for mercy rather than faultfinding. Even when those reproved have sinned, arbitrarily bearing down on them for small matters when the reprover is more faulty in many things is the greater sin, and such little things should not call forth reproof or remarks but are best corrected by holy example.
The beam is the critic's own far greater fault obstructing vision and impairing judgment, so that one eager to correct another while overlooking self cannot see clearly. That greater fault is lack of forbearance and love beside the other's mote. It is a diseased tongue with suspicious thinking and evil speaking, magnifying small mistakes and differences instead of passing over them without comment and thinking of the good in the brother. It is also selfishness and jealousy, and selfishness and covetousness unrecognized through resisting the Spirit, and failure to follow Christ's way of dealing with wrongdoing by examining self and speaking kindly with the condemned to give chance for explanation. In sum it is faultfinding, evil suspicion, harmful speech, false witness, hatred and accusing fellow believers.
The eye image means a mote held close obscures all vision, so unjust criticism distorts judgment and removing it allows seeing the good beyond. Faultfinders hold a small fault close to the eye until it looks like a mountain and nothing else can be seen, a mote becoming like a mountain when viewed through suspicion and distrust, with dwelling on faults leading to harmful words and thoughts. Thinking and talking about a little difference makes a mountain out of a molehill until ill feeling and lack of confidence result. Picking at straws, gathering titbits of evil, and making mountains out of molehills with unjust criticism and evil surmisings could be removed if desired, and removing it would be mercy, letting them see the glory beyond and how the Lord regards their attitude. The same image is applied to the false security of earthly riches keeping people from seeing eternal realities, which Christ removes so they can look beyond the present and recognize the lasting glory of the eternal world they had lost sight of.
The offending eye to be plucked out is the inclination to see a brother unfairly. It is accusing a brother in the heart on the basis of false suppositions, revealing distorted judgment while judging another's faults. It must be corrected by looking to Jesus and correcting one's own thoughts and ways.
Hypocrisy and Self Blindness
To fix the eye on a brother's small fault while not considering one's own larger fault is hypocrisy, rash judgment, inconsistency and unjust judgment. It is eagerness to notice, criticize and correct another while overlooking, neglecting and remaining blind to one's own greater faults. Such fault-finders are blind to their own defects and cannot see clearly to deal justly with another. The very discovery of a mote in a brother is a sign of a beam in one's own eye, and the habit of watching for defects in others proves a greater defect in the watcher.
The order required is first to examine, acknowledge, turn from and cast out one's own fault. Only after putting away the beam can one see clearly to help remove the mote from the brother's eye. That clear sight then gives wise, loving, clear-sighted help instead of suspicion, bitterness and division. Condemning another while doing the same things condemns the judge himself. The warning is serious because each life will be reviewed and face God's truthful judgment. Each person is accountable to God for his own conduct and not for others, and must answer only for his own wrongs, so seeing and condemning another's wrongs neither excuses nor cancels one's own errors.
Correcting Others With Love
Correction that truly helps must speak plain facts to make the erring see and feel the error so they may reform, yet always with pitying tenderness and Christlike sympathy and love rather than harshness, severity, coldness, accusation, dictatorial oppression, detective watching or harassment. The one who corrects must remember personal weakness and danger of being tempted, deal as he wishes to be dealt with, kindly and patiently give the benefit of judgment, and not censure integrity of purpose sooner than he would wish to be suspected himself. When the fault is seen and acknowledged the erring one is to be given comfort and not grief, lest pressing the thorn deeper weaken faith and courage and confidence and manhood for successful work. Sitting in the chair of judgment to thrust at friend or brother injures the judger himself, for calling a brother a sinner proves the accuser a sinner, and a fierce criticizing condemning spirit has no place in Christian and medical missionary work, so warfare with one another must cease and the struggling are to be loved, helped, prayed for and not despised or avoided. Quickness to discern brethren's errors frequently marks greater faults and blindness in the discerner, warning against claiming superior holiness when one's own sins may be worse in God's sight.
Fitness to reprove or to administer church discipline requires spiritual discernment and a Christlike life rather than faulty human judgment that condemns those deserving commendation and supports those doing wrong. Self-knowledge and self-discipline are necessary, with thoughts, feelings and passions brought under control of the Spirit, the heart searched, personal sins humbled before God, the heart put in order, character reformed, connection with God gained, and daily Christian experience lived before taking responsibility for souls outside Christ. Selfishness and covetousness may remain unrecognized because they belong to nature and reproof of the Holy Spirit is unheeded, so the beam must be removed before the mote can be seen clearly, and correcting fellow believers requires wisdom from God with growing spiritual experience, meekness and holiness through the Holy Spirit. No one is placed on the judgment seat to judge a brother or define the character of his sin.
No minister, conference president, or member is to take the work of judgment upon himself, watch God's laborers to exercise human judgment, set up fallible man to judge and dictate to fellows, sit on the judgment seat to define a brother's sin, or decide who among members are tares and who are wheat. Each must get out of the chair of judgment, leave others to the Lord, and look to God for wisdom and counsel line upon line and precept upon precept, for glorifying human capabilities puts the God of power and glory out of sight and man's voice and judgment is not to be the voice and judgment of God's people. As the close of earth's history nears God will overturn human exaltation until man stands in his appointed place, for He Himself is the true Shepherd of His flock. God may use discipline to reveal defects, and each should correct personal wrongs while leaving judgment of others to God.
Reproof and correction are meant to make God's people perfect, and those who repent are forgiven, so the corrector must first accept reproof, acknowledge and turn from personal errors, and avoid rushing to accuse, that he may help wisely and in love. In trying to correct others Christians must beware lest they commit equally great sins themselves, for hatred, emulation, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies and envyings give no license under sight of a brother's fault, being as truly works of the flesh as lasciviousness, adultery, drunkenness and murder and as surely closing heaven against the guilty. Seeing faults in others should lead to recognizing similar sins in self and avoiding repetition of un-Christlike conduct, not to casting them aside or sinking into despondency. Making much of small faults while indifferent to greatest matters breaks the command, for watching dress, little acts and words, spending many words in reproof over them, becoming irritated and arbitrarily bearing down over minor things when more faulty in many things is the greater sin, and such little things call for no reproof or remark but are best corrected by holy example. A professed Christian living an un-Christlike life who tries to set others right is like one neglecting his own garden while offering to order a neighbor's, unlovely in word and action and not circumspect at home with trailing vines, obstructing rubbish and choked beds, and such work makes religious profession a farce with no success in saving souls from death and hiding a multitude of sins.
Evils Caused By Faultfinding
Thinking about a small difference or mistake in a brother and talking about it magnifies it until a mountain is made out of a molehill, producing ill feeling and lack of confidence. Words of criticism and faultfinding stir up the worst passions of the human heart and a spirit of antagonism and retaliation, even accusing and condemning without order or courtesy in council meetings, so the precious talent of speech is abused and silence when irritated is required instead. Attempted correction without first examining self and kindly giving the one condemned a chance to explain creates contention, estrangement and spiritual harm rather than help. Criticism and fault-finding in this way stir antagonism and weaken the church, and hinder the work. Satan distorts matters so the small seems great and the great seems small.
Dwelling on a brother's faults while neglecting one's own does the devil's work, for the diseased tongue and suspicious thinking and evil speaking keep out the joy of the Lord. Such a critical, unforgiving spirit reflects Satan's work, with selfishness and jealousy keeping the accuser from approaching the brother to resolve the difficulty, creating disunion and obstructing the Spirit of God and the light of God's countenance. Dwelling on faults through suspicion and distrust leads to harmful words and thoughts that grieve the Holy Spirit. Unkind faultfinding that points out and dwells upon defects in others while blind to one's own weakness grieves the heart of Christ more than anything else and blights and cuts souls like desolating hail, requiring gentleness, departure from iniquity, and holy pure character in word and example. Fault-finding and slander do untold mischief and spend strength in Satan's cause, tearing down reputation and standing aloof instead of building up and strengthening brethren's hands.
The habit of watching for defects proves a greater defect in the watcher, and the very discovery of a mote is the sign of a beam, coming from not knowing Christ as the Way, the Truth, and the Life. It leaves the soul without freedom and sanctification and unguarded through failure to overcome, unfitting for communion with God. Attention to others' faults leaves one's own soul unchecked and spiritually neglected, with fixating on dress, actions or supposed errors turning the mind away from God. Being absorbed in correcting a neighbor neglects one's own defects and loses sight of God, failing to value God enough to seek to become like Him and therefore losing power to bear the fruits of righteousness. It forgets that the brother was purchased by Christ's blood, while love for Christ would lead to recognizing the good in others. Attention to defects shapes the watcher into the same image, acting as a leaven of evil that develops in the watcher the very defects watched for. If not firmly resisted it strengthens one evil habit into chains of steel binding the whole man, and what is registered against such in the books of heaven would alarm if seen.
Censorious criticism adds conceit and condemnation to the sin criticized, misrepresents the gentle spirit of the gospel, and wounds people for whom Christ died. Keen perception of another's defects cannot replace love, and without love religious activity and zeal lack Christ's presence. Keeping the cross of Calvary in view cures the judging spirit, for one who looks often on the cross and remembers his own sins placed the Saviour there will not measure his guilt against others, will not climb upon the judgment seat to accuse another, and will have no spirit of criticism or self-exaltation while walking in its shadow.
The one guilty of wrong is often first to suspect wrong in another, and condemnation can conceal or excuse evil in one's own heart. Since sin entered, people have accused one another, and without Christ's grace this is human nature, marked by a cold, critical, unforgiving spirit. The elder brother magnified the restored son's mistakes and saw the mote while failing to discern the beam in his own, and his self-blindness kept him from approaching his brother to settle the difficulty and fueled suspicion, accusation and an unforgiving spirit. Those who condemned Edson White for financial mismanagement were themselves financially embarrassed in ways not according to God's order, trying to remove a mote while a beam was in their own. Treating thoughtless or unintentional errors as deliberate sins requires humbling and recognition of one's own faults.
Evil suspicion and jealousy can be mistaken for special discernment, leading a person to sit in judgment, close the heart against a brother, and claim accusation is zeal for truth. Such judgmental spirit is deceptive, harmful, and not wisdom from above, coming from an unregenerate heart and needing removal. Jealousy distorts how others are seen, so looking within and rightly recognizing one's own mistakes and failures makes others' faults seem insignificant. A selfish, exacting, fault-finding and arbitrary disposition censures a brother or sister who deserves censure far less than oneself, shows severity for a supposed wrong or for not meeting one's own ideas of right, and withholds the Christian compassionate allowance deserved. It mistakes peevish personal feelings and self-seeking for a God-given burden and for zeal for truth and the cause of God.
Calls To Examine Yourself
The call to self-examination falls on everyone without exception, including ministers, physicians, publishing-house workers, teachers, medical students and spouses, requiring each to search the heart, confess personal sins and neglected duties to God, cleanse envy, jealousy, selfishness and malice, distrust self, and seek God's help to see clearly and reform. The work must be done first in one's own heart before correcting church members or reaching lost souls, yielding selfishness to Christ and asking Him to cleanse the heart and reform the character, and refusing to act on suspicions or spread accusations until one's own conduct is corrected so as to see clearly how to help another. This belongs to the genuine science of higher education and to the principles to be learned humbly at Christ's feet, and when obeyed it brings victories through prayer and Christ's intercession, with love, unity and confidence in hard places.
The seventh chapter of Matthew must be studied every word as for life and practiced daily as a moral looking glass for words, spirit and actions, and ministers and members must study it most critically again and again for their own enlightenment and not to prove supposed faults discerned in other members. Being absorbed with the faults of others is a very serious defect, and unless there are decided conversions many who think they are lights will prove to be stumbling blocks. Watching over and correcting oneself is all the work one has to do, so each must attend to number one and to his own soul instead of picking and picking at flaws like buzzards and vultures watching for dead bodies.
No one is appointed to fixate on and condemn another's errors, for dwelling on others' imperfections makes a person harsh and self-centered, and criticism based on imagined or exaggerated faults leads to serious mistakes. Attacking perceived faults can provoke resistance and do more harm than good while breeding a habit of faultfinding, and one who is upset and feels responsible for correcting everyone nearby is not on sound ground but is kept from doing his own work well and nobly. Instead each must first examine self and look to Jesus, whose love and purity rule out a censorious spirit, search the heart and humble self before God to esteem others better than self, and teach better habits by example.
God gives no one the work of watching for faults and talking about them, picking at straws, gathering titbits of evil, and making mountains out of molehills by holding a small fault close to the eye until nothing else can be seen. Test and trial for workers come from God, not from men who confuse, perplex and discourage workers, leave them down and hopeless, misinterpret words and actions, exaggerate mistakes, magnify every supposed wrong, construe actions into evil, make a man an offender for a word, and turn things not objectionable into unkind criticism, and God is better pleased when such ones are engaged in prayer instead of criticism. Those with clear eyesight look with unselfish hearts at the good accomplished, commend it, praise God for it, lift up the fallen, and work earnestly to bring what is begun to completion through wisdom from God rather than conceit, the baptism of the Holy Spirit, and the pity and self-sacrifice of Christ, so the church becomes a court of holy love.
Near the close of earth's history no minister or conference president is to take judgment upon himself, watch God's laborers to exercise human judgment, or set up fallible man to judge and dictate to fellows while overlooking his own far greater fault, for glorifying human capabilities puts God out of sight and God Himself will overturn human exaltation until man stands in his appointed place as the true Shepherd leads His flock line upon line. The same rule forbids accusing and condemning without order or courtesy in council meetings, publicly exposing others while doing greater harm oneself, and judging a fellow worker such as Dr. Kellogg in an unchristlike spirit instead of building over one's own house and attending closely to self-examination. It also forbids criticizing physicians while indulging selfishness and disregarding health reform, and closing the eyes to fellow workers' needs while blind to one's own selfishness and lack of love, since true faith works by love and cares for others as for self.
The verse also forbids flattering, praising and glorifying others as well as harshness and impatience, for love of Jesus in the heart keeps from both, and each must be a doer of the Word and not a hearer only by being jealous over his own spirit and character. Brethren must guard one another's interests, do as they would be done by in an enemy's land, kindly and patiently give the benefit of judgment, deal as they wish the Lord to deal with them, consider their own weakness lest they also be tempted, and when plain truth must be spoken do it with pitying tenderness and give comfort when the fault is acknowledged rather than grief. Each must stop watching others and tearing them to pieces, search the heart, confess own wrongs, correct own errors, perfect holiness in the fear of God, leave brethren with the Lord and handle only self, remembering that in another's place one might not have done so well, strengthening hands by building up not tearing down, and keeping a happy, cheerful, forbearing spirit at home so that united work accomplishes truth and holiness.
This searching exposes concrete evasions, such as reporting another worker's theater-going daughter while one's own daughter rules the house or son does as he pleases, which requires putting oneself in the other's place, asking how it would feel to be told to leave after working early and late to build a home with no courage or chance to improve, and putting away evil surmising, jealousy and place-to-place talk. It forbids separating colored brethren for misdoing instead of helping them with exact justice and tender compassion, and forbids using another's failures to divert attention or appear zealous. It also forbids rashly ascribing a manifestation of the Holy Spirit to evil agencies instead of first expelling wrong from one's own heart, showing a Pharisaic spirit that flatters self as tender and compassionate while greatly needing forbearance, misconstruing motives because expectations are unmet, treating thoughtless or unintentional errors as deliberate sins, magnifying a small defect in manner as a world when it is only an atom, and neglecting important interests until harsh merciless severity is mistaken for virtue.
Stopping criticism and evil thinking gives a chance to recognize personal faults and to begin the faith that works by love and purifies the soul, resulting in good fruit by which character is known and preparing the heart to understand the golden rule and obey the narrow way. When self is put aside and each humbles himself before God asking to see his own wrongs, self dies, trouble gives way to love, unity and fellowship, need for forgiveness leads to forgiving others and seeking reconciliation, and humility prepares the heart to receive Christ and to strengthen and encourage others.
To notice and criticize a small fault in a brother while overlooking and remaining blind to one's own far greater fault is hypocrisy and unjust judgment. The small fault is a little mistake in manner, word or act, while the greater fault is the critic's own lack of love, selfishness and faultfinding spirit that obstructs vision and impairs judgment. The required order is first to examine, acknowledge and cast out one's own fault, and only then will one see clearly to help the brother with wise and loving help. When plain truth must be spoken to bring reform, it must be done with pitying tenderness and Christlike sympathy rather than harshness, severity or accusation, remembering one's own weakness. Dwelling on a brother's faults magnifies a molehill into a mountain until contention and disunion result, doing the devil's work and grieving Christ and the Holy Spirit.
Setting and Word Pictures
Matthew 7:3 belongs to the Sermon on the Mount, spoken especially to the disciples while the gathered multitude also heard. It teaches the foundation principles of the kingdom of God, principles of divine grace rather than promises of earthly glory or political freedom, and they remain as important now as for the multitude that followed Him. In that sermon false education was undone to give a right conception of His kingdom and of His own character, disappointing hope of worldly greatness, teaching something infinitely better than had been known, telling the conditions of entrance into the kingdom and leaving hearers to draw their own conclusions as to its nature without direct attack on errors or vivid delineation of wretchedness from sin. It in every way opposed and virtually contradicted the theories, practice and doctrines of the self-righteous scribes and Pharisees, who presented human ideas and endless maxims and traditions as proceeding from God without His authority and so misrepresented God as a stern judge incapable of compassion, mercy and love, while sweeping away misrepresentation to restore confidence in the love of God and to present God in paternal love as Our Father. Its far-reaching principles show that the state of the heart regulates the life and character, so that understanding God's law requires having its spirit in the heart. Its lessons are to be shown in the way people live, for living them makes a deeper and more lasting impression than preaching alone.
The mote is a small fault, mistake, little difference, quibble, atom, or supposed error in a brother. It includes manner, dress, little acts and words, watched for and spent many words in reproof over until irritation results. Such a small defect in another's manner, when magnified as though it were a world when it is only an atom, reveals self-living and lack of true nobility of character, while priding oneself on refined gestures. Making much of such a small item or quibble as a pretext for sharp, prolonged criticism, holding up decisions and wearing others down, is sinful and does not glorify God, calling instead for mercy rather than faultfinding. Even when those reproved have sinned, arbitrarily bearing down on them for small matters when the reprover is more faulty in many things is the greater sin, and such little things should not call forth reproof or remarks but are best corrected by holy example.
The beam is the critic's own far greater fault obstructing vision and impairing judgment, so that one eager to correct another while overlooking self cannot see clearly. That greater fault is lack of forbearance and love beside the other's mote. It is a diseased tongue with suspicious thinking and evil speaking, magnifying small mistakes and differences instead of passing over them without comment and thinking of the good in the brother. It is also selfishness and jealousy, and selfishness and covetousness unrecognized through resisting the Spirit, and failure to follow Christ's way of dealing with wrongdoing by examining self and speaking kindly with the condemned to give chance for explanation. In sum it is faultfinding, evil suspicion, harmful speech, false witness, hatred and accusing fellow believers.
The eye image means a mote held close obscures all vision, so unjust criticism distorts judgment and removing it allows seeing the good beyond. Faultfinders hold a small fault close to the eye until it looks like a mountain and nothing else can be seen, a mote becoming like a mountain when viewed through suspicion and distrust, with dwelling on faults leading to harmful words and thoughts. Thinking and talking about a little difference makes a mountain out of a molehill until ill feeling and lack of confidence result. Picking at straws, gathering titbits of evil, and making mountains out of molehills with unjust criticism and evil surmisings could be removed if desired, and removing it would be mercy, letting them see the glory beyond and how the Lord regards their attitude. The same image is applied to the false security of earthly riches keeping people from seeing eternal realities, which Christ removes so they can look beyond the present and recognize the lasting glory of the eternal world they had lost sight of.
The offending eye to be plucked out is the inclination to see a brother unfairly. It is accusing a brother in the heart on the basis of false suppositions, revealing distorted judgment while judging another's faults. It must be corrected by looking to Jesus and correcting one's own thoughts and ways.
Hypocrisy and Self Blindness
To fix the eye on a brother's small fault while not considering one's own larger fault is hypocrisy, rash judgment, inconsistency and unjust judgment. It is eagerness to notice, criticize and correct another while overlooking, neglecting and remaining blind to one's own greater faults. Such fault-finders are blind to their own defects and cannot see clearly to deal justly with another. The very discovery of a mote in a brother is a sign of a beam in one's own eye, and the habit of watching for defects in others proves a greater defect in the watcher.
The order required is first to examine, acknowledge, turn from and cast out one's own fault. Only after putting away the beam can one see clearly to help remove the mote from the brother's eye. That clear sight then gives wise, loving, clear-sighted help instead of suspicion, bitterness and division. Condemning another while doing the same things condemns the judge himself. The warning is serious because each life will be reviewed and face God's truthful judgment. Each person is accountable to God for his own conduct and not for others, and must answer only for his own wrongs, so seeing and condemning another's wrongs neither excuses nor cancels one's own errors.
Correcting Others With Love
Correction that truly helps must speak plain facts to make the erring see and feel the error so they may reform, yet always with pitying tenderness and Christlike sympathy and love rather than harshness, severity, coldness, accusation, dictatorial oppression, detective watching or harassment. The one who corrects must remember personal weakness and danger of being tempted, deal as he wishes to be dealt with, kindly and patiently give the benefit of judgment, and not censure integrity of purpose sooner than he would wish to be suspected himself. When the fault is seen and acknowledged the erring one is to be given comfort and not grief, lest pressing the thorn deeper weaken faith and courage and confidence and manhood for successful work. Sitting in the chair of judgment to thrust at friend or brother injures the judger himself, for calling a brother a sinner proves the accuser a sinner, and a fierce criticizing condemning spirit has no place in Christian and medical missionary work, so warfare with one another must cease and the struggling are to be loved, helped, prayed for and not despised or avoided. Quickness to discern brethren's errors frequently marks greater faults and blindness in the discerner, warning against claiming superior holiness when one's own sins may be worse in God's sight.
Fitness to reprove or to administer church discipline requires spiritual discernment and a Christlike life rather than faulty human judgment that condemns those deserving commendation and supports those doing wrong. Self-knowledge and self-discipline are necessary, with thoughts, feelings and passions brought under control of the Spirit, the heart searched, personal sins humbled before God, the heart put in order, character reformed, connection with God gained, and daily Christian experience lived before taking responsibility for souls outside Christ. Selfishness and covetousness may remain unrecognized because they belong to nature and reproof of the Holy Spirit is unheeded, so the beam must be removed before the mote can be seen clearly, and correcting fellow believers requires wisdom from God with growing spiritual experience, meekness and holiness through the Holy Spirit. No one is placed on the judgment seat to judge a brother or define the character of his sin.
No minister, conference president, or member is to take the work of judgment upon himself, watch God's laborers to exercise human judgment, set up fallible man to judge and dictate to fellows, sit on the judgment seat to define a brother's sin, or decide who among members are tares and who are wheat. Each must get out of the chair of judgment, leave others to the Lord, and look to God for wisdom and counsel line upon line and precept upon precept, for glorifying human capabilities puts the God of power and glory out of sight and man's voice and judgment is not to be the voice and judgment of God's people. As the close of earth's history nears God will overturn human exaltation until man stands in his appointed place, for He Himself is the true Shepherd of His flock. God may use discipline to reveal defects, and each should correct personal wrongs while leaving judgment of others to God.
Reproof and correction are meant to make God's people perfect, and those who repent are forgiven, so the corrector must first accept reproof, acknowledge and turn from personal errors, and avoid rushing to accuse, that he may help wisely and in love. In trying to correct others Christians must beware lest they commit equally great sins themselves, for hatred, emulation, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies and envyings give no license under sight of a brother's fault, being as truly works of the flesh as lasciviousness, adultery, drunkenness and murder and as surely closing heaven against the guilty. Seeing faults in others should lead to recognizing similar sins in self and avoiding repetition of un-Christlike conduct, not to casting them aside or sinking into despondency. Making much of small faults while indifferent to greatest matters breaks the command, for watching dress, little acts and words, spending many words in reproof over them, becoming irritated and arbitrarily bearing down over minor things when more faulty in many things is the greater sin, and such little things call for no reproof or remark but are best corrected by holy example. A professed Christian living an un-Christlike life who tries to set others right is like one neglecting his own garden while offering to order a neighbor's, unlovely in word and action and not circumspect at home with trailing vines, obstructing rubbish and choked beds, and such work makes religious profession a farce with no success in saving souls from death and hiding a multitude of sins.
Evils Caused By Faultfinding
Thinking about a small difference or mistake in a brother and talking about it magnifies it until a mountain is made out of a molehill, producing ill feeling and lack of confidence. Words of criticism and faultfinding stir up the worst passions of the human heart and a spirit of antagonism and retaliation, even accusing and condemning without order or courtesy in council meetings, so the precious talent of speech is abused and silence when irritated is required instead. Attempted correction without first examining self and kindly giving the one condemned a chance to explain creates contention, estrangement and spiritual harm rather than help. Criticism and fault-finding in this way stir antagonism and weaken the church, and hinder the work. Satan distorts matters so the small seems great and the great seems small.
Dwelling on a brother's faults while neglecting one's own does the devil's work, for the diseased tongue and suspicious thinking and evil speaking keep out the joy of the Lord. Such a critical, unforgiving spirit reflects Satan's work, with selfishness and jealousy keeping the accuser from approaching the brother to resolve the difficulty, creating disunion and obstructing the Spirit of God and the light of God's countenance. Dwelling on faults through suspicion and distrust leads to harmful words and thoughts that grieve the Holy Spirit. Unkind faultfinding that points out and dwells upon defects in others while blind to one's own weakness grieves the heart of Christ more than anything else and blights and cuts souls like desolating hail, requiring gentleness, departure from iniquity, and holy pure character in word and example. Fault-finding and slander do untold mischief and spend strength in Satan's cause, tearing down reputation and standing aloof instead of building up and strengthening brethren's hands.
The habit of watching for defects proves a greater defect in the watcher, and the very discovery of a mote is the sign of a beam, coming from not knowing Christ as the Way, the Truth, and the Life. It leaves the soul without freedom and sanctification and unguarded through failure to overcome, unfitting for communion with God. Attention to others' faults leaves one's own soul unchecked and spiritually neglected, with fixating on dress, actions or supposed errors turning the mind away from God. Being absorbed in correcting a neighbor neglects one's own defects and loses sight of God, failing to value God enough to seek to become like Him and therefore losing power to bear the fruits of righteousness. It forgets that the brother was purchased by Christ's blood, while love for Christ would lead to recognizing the good in others. Attention to defects shapes the watcher into the same image, acting as a leaven of evil that develops in the watcher the very defects watched for. If not firmly resisted it strengthens one evil habit into chains of steel binding the whole man, and what is registered against such in the books of heaven would alarm if seen.
Censorious criticism adds conceit and condemnation to the sin criticized, misrepresents the gentle spirit of the gospel, and wounds people for whom Christ died. Keen perception of another's defects cannot replace love, and without love religious activity and zeal lack Christ's presence. Keeping the cross of Calvary in view cures the judging spirit, for one who looks often on the cross and remembers his own sins placed the Saviour there will not measure his guilt against others, will not climb upon the judgment seat to accuse another, and will have no spirit of criticism or self-exaltation while walking in its shadow.
The one guilty of wrong is often first to suspect wrong in another, and condemnation can conceal or excuse evil in one's own heart. Since sin entered, people have accused one another, and without Christ's grace this is human nature, marked by a cold, critical, unforgiving spirit. The elder brother magnified the restored son's mistakes and saw the mote while failing to discern the beam in his own, and his self-blindness kept him from approaching his brother to settle the difficulty and fueled suspicion, accusation and an unforgiving spirit. Those who condemned Edson White for financial mismanagement were themselves financially embarrassed in ways not according to God's order, trying to remove a mote while a beam was in their own. Treating thoughtless or unintentional errors as deliberate sins requires humbling and recognition of one's own faults.
Evil suspicion and jealousy can be mistaken for special discernment, leading a person to sit in judgment, close the heart against a brother, and claim accusation is zeal for truth. Such judgmental spirit is deceptive, harmful, and not wisdom from above, coming from an unregenerate heart and needing removal. Jealousy distorts how others are seen, so looking within and rightly recognizing one's own mistakes and failures makes others' faults seem insignificant. A selfish, exacting, fault-finding and arbitrary disposition censures a brother or sister who deserves censure far less than oneself, shows severity for a supposed wrong or for not meeting one's own ideas of right, and withholds the Christian compassionate allowance deserved. It mistakes peevish personal feelings and self-seeking for a God-given burden and for zeal for truth and the cause of God.
Calls To Examine Yourself
The call to self-examination falls on everyone without exception, including ministers, physicians, publishing-house workers, teachers, medical students and spouses, requiring each to search the heart, confess personal sins and neglected duties to God, cleanse envy, jealousy, selfishness and malice, distrust self, and seek God's help to see clearly and reform. The work must be done first in one's own heart before correcting church members or reaching lost souls, yielding selfishness to Christ and asking Him to cleanse the heart and reform the character, and refusing to act on suspicions or spread accusations until one's own conduct is corrected so as to see clearly how to help another. This belongs to the genuine science of higher education and to the principles to be learned humbly at Christ's feet, and when obeyed it brings victories through prayer and Christ's intercession, with love, unity and confidence in hard places.
The seventh chapter of Matthew must be studied every word as for life and practiced daily as a moral looking glass for words, spirit and actions, and ministers and members must study it most critically again and again for their own enlightenment and not to prove supposed faults discerned in other members. Being absorbed with the faults of others is a very serious defect, and unless there are decided conversions many who think they are lights will prove to be stumbling blocks. Watching over and correcting oneself is all the work one has to do, so each must attend to number one and to his own soul instead of picking and picking at flaws like buzzards and vultures watching for dead bodies.
No one is appointed to fixate on and condemn another's errors, for dwelling on others' imperfections makes a person harsh and self-centered, and criticism based on imagined or exaggerated faults leads to serious mistakes. Attacking perceived faults can provoke resistance and do more harm than good while breeding a habit of faultfinding, and one who is upset and feels responsible for correcting everyone nearby is not on sound ground but is kept from doing his own work well and nobly. Instead each must first examine self and look to Jesus, whose love and purity rule out a censorious spirit, search the heart and humble self before God to esteem others better than self, and teach better habits by example.
God gives no one the work of watching for faults and talking about them, picking at straws, gathering titbits of evil, and making mountains out of molehills by holding a small fault close to the eye until nothing else can be seen. Test and trial for workers come from God, not from men who confuse, perplex and discourage workers, leave them down and hopeless, misinterpret words and actions, exaggerate mistakes, magnify every supposed wrong, construe actions into evil, make a man an offender for a word, and turn things not objectionable into unkind criticism, and God is better pleased when such ones are engaged in prayer instead of criticism. Those with clear eyesight look with unselfish hearts at the good accomplished, commend it, praise God for it, lift up the fallen, and work earnestly to bring what is begun to completion through wisdom from God rather than conceit, the baptism of the Holy Spirit, and the pity and self-sacrifice of Christ, so the church becomes a court of holy love.
Near the close of earth's history no minister or conference president is to take judgment upon himself, watch God's laborers to exercise human judgment, or set up fallible man to judge and dictate to fellows while overlooking his own far greater fault, for glorifying human capabilities puts God out of sight and God Himself will overturn human exaltation until man stands in his appointed place as the true Shepherd leads His flock line upon line. The same rule forbids accusing and condemning without order or courtesy in council meetings, publicly exposing others while doing greater harm oneself, and judging a fellow worker such as Dr. Kellogg in an unchristlike spirit instead of building over one's own house and attending closely to self-examination. It also forbids criticizing physicians while indulging selfishness and disregarding health reform, and closing the eyes to fellow workers' needs while blind to one's own selfishness and lack of love, since true faith works by love and cares for others as for self.
The verse also forbids flattering, praising and glorifying others as well as harshness and impatience, for love of Jesus in the heart keeps from both, and each must be a doer of the Word and not a hearer only by being jealous over his own spirit and character. Brethren must guard one another's interests, do as they would be done by in an enemy's land, kindly and patiently give the benefit of judgment, deal as they wish the Lord to deal with them, consider their own weakness lest they also be tempted, and when plain truth must be spoken do it with pitying tenderness and give comfort when the fault is acknowledged rather than grief. Each must stop watching others and tearing them to pieces, search the heart, confess own wrongs, correct own errors, perfect holiness in the fear of God, leave brethren with the Lord and handle only self, remembering that in another's place one might not have done so well, strengthening hands by building up not tearing down, and keeping a happy, cheerful, forbearing spirit at home so that united work accomplishes truth and holiness.
This searching exposes concrete evasions, such as reporting another worker's theater-going daughter while one's own daughter rules the house or son does as he pleases, which requires putting oneself in the other's place, asking how it would feel to be told to leave after working early and late to build a home with no courage or chance to improve, and putting away evil surmising, jealousy and place-to-place talk. It forbids separating colored brethren for misdoing instead of helping them with exact justice and tender compassion, and forbids using another's failures to divert attention or appear zealous. It also forbids rashly ascribing a manifestation of the Holy Spirit to evil agencies instead of first expelling wrong from one's own heart, showing a Pharisaic spirit that flatters self as tender and compassionate while greatly needing forbearance, misconstruing motives because expectations are unmet, treating thoughtless or unintentional errors as deliberate sins, magnifying a small defect in manner as a world when it is only an atom, and neglecting important interests until harsh merciless severity is mistaken for virtue.
Stopping criticism and evil thinking gives a chance to recognize personal faults and to begin the faith that works by love and purifies the soul, resulting in good fruit by which character is known and preparing the heart to understand the golden rule and obey the narrow way. When self is put aside and each humbles himself before God asking to see his own wrongs, self dies, trouble gives way to love, unity and fellowship, need for forgiveness leads to forgiving others and seeking reconciliation, and humility prepares the heart to receive Christ and to strengthen and encourage others.