October 30, 2024 Devo

October 30th, 2024

“It’s All About Jesus!”
Questions Jesus Asked
“Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye?” (Matthew 7:3)
“Why We See Others Like We Do”

Jesus asks two questions in our passage today. Let’s look at the first one. “Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye?” Great question. Why do we find it so easy to spot the flaws in other people? Why are we so quick to pass judgment on them, criticize them, and find fault with them? And why do we nitpick the smallest things sometimes and make them out to be a big deal?
The answers to those questions vary, but they’re all pretty painful. For some of us, we don’t like who we are. We may feel bad about how we look or what we have or how little we feel we’ve achieved. When that’s the case, finding and pointing out the flaws in others makes us feel better about ourselves. When you can’t stand tall, you try to make everyone else shorter.
Sometimes we point out the faults of others out of guilt. Perhaps we have a bad habit we haven’t overcome. Perhaps we have an attitude or character flaw that we know is not pleasing to the Lord. Maybe we have a closet addiction that no one knows about. When the guilt kicks in, one of the ways we justify ourselves or ease our feelings of conviction is to point out the sins in other people’s lives. “At least I’m not like THAT,” we say to ourselves. Somehow admiring other people’s sins makes ours more tolerable.
And notice the word “speck” that Jesus uses. Why do we sometimes laser in on small, insignificant stuff in others? Honestly? Jealousy. Insecurity. Envy. Pettiness. Feelings of inferiority or times when we’re feeling threatened. Any one of these can act like a magnifying lens through which we look at others, making us lock in on even the smallest of flaws.
Jesus challenges us to ask “Why?” Why do we look at people the way that we do? The answer to that question might be a point of growth that God is trying to lead us to. Sit with Jesus today and think about how YOU have looked at people in the last week or so. As funny as it seems, the lens you’ve used to look at others tells you a lot more about YOU than it does about THEM. And that’s the point Jesus is trying to make. That’s God’s Word for you today.