Stable Ground
On a recent visit, I was walking my grandmother from her car into my parent’s house. It was still a bit icy in patches and a stable arm is always a help to feeble knees.
At one point, we crossed over an ice patch that could sink the Titanic. Foolishly, I was standing on the ice at the same time I was trying to help her walk across it. Sensing the danger, she told me to step ahead onto dry ground. I did and remarked to her, “It would be hard to save you if you slipped on the ice while I was standing on the ice, wouldn’t it?”
As I thought about it, the whole experience seemed to be a valid illustration for Christian teachers. We cannot help others if, we ourselves, are not on stable ground.
Hebrews 12:12-13 says, “...strengthen the hands which hang down, and the feeble knees, and make straight paths for your feet, so that what is lame may not be dislocated, but rather be healed.” It is a duty of Christians to instruct and teach the spiritually weak to strengthen them.
Yet, it will do little good to try and teach others to correct the mistakes we ourselves are still making. Thus, we must make sure we are on stable ground before proceeding to judge, teach and correct another.
This is the real meaning behind the famous “Judge not” quotation from Jesus. If we read the context, we will notice Jesus does not forbid all judgment, but those judgments that declare our hypocrisy. In other words, condemning someone else when we ourselves are guilty of the same or worse at the time.
He says, “Judge not, that you be not judged. For with what judgment you judge, you will be judged; and with the measure you use, it will be measured back to you. And why do you look at the speck in your brother’s eye, but do not consider the plank in your own eye? Or how can you say to your brother, ‘Let me remove the speck from your eye’; and look, a plank is in your own eye? Hypocrite! First remove the plank from your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye” (Matthew 7:1-5).
It is much easier to help others turn from sin, when we have done so ourselves!
Think about it.
March 2007