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"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." Matthew 7:5.
The rule of conduct which the Word of God sets before us contains far
more than a series of negative prohibitions, forbidding certain things:
it also marks out a path to be walked in, setting forth positive
directions of action. To be preserved from sinning is good, but to be
impelled unto practical holiness is far better, the one being the means
of the other. It is not sufficient for the branches of the vine to be
kept free from blight and pests: they must produce fruit if they are to
justify their existence. It is not enough for a garden to be clear of
weeds: it must yield healthy vegetables if it is to be of service to its
owner. So of the Christian: "be not overcome of evil" is only the first
part of the duty laid upon him—"but overcome evil with good" (Rom.
12:21) is what is especially required of us. An illustration of this
important principle, so frequently inculcated by Christ and His
apostles, appears in the passage now before us. Our Lord did not stop
short by merely condemning the evil habit of unlawfully judging our
brethren, but went on to give instructions as to how we should deal with
those needing assistance, and particularly how we must deal with
ourselves if we are to be qualified for a ministry of helpfulness unto
others.
From what our Lord has said in the opening verses of Matthew 7 it might
possibly be concluded that it is not permissible for us to admonish a
brother or seek the amendment of his fault, yet further reflection
should show us that that inference is entirely erroneous. Christ has
plainly warned us, "Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the
prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfill" (Matthew
5:17)—"fulfill" it not only in His mediatory and atoning work, but in
His teachings and by inspiring His followers to act according to the
requirements of the Law (Rom. 3:31; 7:22). Now the Law had expressly
enjoined, "Thou shalt not hate thy brother in thine heart: thou shalt in
any wise rebuke thy neighbor, and not suffer sin upon him" (Lev. 19:17),
and therefore it must not be supposed for a moment that there was
anything in the teaching of Christ which set aside that statute. It
cannot be insisted upon too strongly today that there is not the
slightest conflict between the Moral Law and the Gospel, but rather the
most perfect harmony. It cannot be otherwise, since the Author of the
one is equally the Author of the other, and He "changes not."
One of the most disastrous errors and follies of many preachers and
"Bible teachers" fifty years ago, the terrible effects of which are now
spread before those who have eyes to see, was their idea that during the
Old Testament era God’s people were under the stern regime of Law
unrelieved by Divine grace, and that Christ came here to set aside that
harsh regime and bring in a much milder dispensation. Not so: Christ
came here to "magnify the law, and make it honorable" (Isa. 42:21). That
Law needed no apology and no amendment, for it is "holy and just and
good," being "spiritual" (Rom. 7:12, 14). The sum of its requirements
is that we love the Lord our God with all our heart, mind and strength
and our neighbor as ourselves: and every requirement of the Moral Law is
enforced in the precepts of the Gospel. The great difference between the
Mosaic and the Christian dispensations lies not in any change in the
rule of conduct set before us, but in the more effectual motives by
which that rule is now enforced and the Divine enablement which is now
vouchsafed. As a nation Israel was unregenerate and therefore the
Law was "weak through the flesh" (Rom. 8:3); but Christians have
received the spirit of "power" (2 Tim. 1:6) and a holy nature which
delights in the Law.
"Thou shalt not hate thy brother in thine heart: thou shalt in any wise
rebuke thy neighbor, and not suffer sin upon him" (Lev. 19:17). How
different is the tenor of that from the maudlin sentimentality of this
effeminate generation. Nowadays, one who seeks to be faithful to the
standard of holiness and to his brethren is, in the vast majority of
instances, regarded as "lacking in love." People who speak thus have no
idea of what spiritual love is. Spiritual love is no sickly sentiment
but a holy principle. God is love, yet that prevents Him not from
using the rod on His children when they require it, but rather moves Him
to employ it. That parent who follows the line of least resistance,
allowing the children to do as they please and never chastising them for
their faults, is lacking in love towards his offspring; but he who truly
seeks their good, lays aside his own feelings and inflicts corporal
punishment when it is needed, is the father who evidences the most love.
Genuine love is faithful, sets aside one’s own interests and
feelings, and ever seeks to promote the well-being of the object of it.
Thus should it be between Christian brethren; thus it must be if
obedience is rendered to the Divine precepts. It is not love which
ignores a brother’s failings, which refuses to perform the unpleasant
duty of seeking an amendment in his ways. No, it is a species of hatred,
as Leviticus 19:17, plainly intimates, for there is no third quality
between love and hatred, as there is no third alternative between right
and wrong. If I really have my brother’s welfare at heart, then love
itself requires that I wink not at his sins, but rather endeavor to save
him from them—just as much as it would demand me warning him when I
perceive the first wisp of smoke issuing from one of his windows: why
wait till his house be half burned down before giving the alarm?
Furthermore, to ignore the sins of one with whom I am intimate makes me
(in some measure at least) a "partaker of them" (1 Tim. 5:22), as is
intimated by the alternative rendering of the last clause of Leviticus
19:17: "that thou bear not sin for him".
There was therefore nothing in Christ’s teaching in Matthew 7 which in
any wise conflicted with Leviticus 19:17, but rather that which threw
light thereon. It was not the act of admonishing a brother which He here
forbade, but the wrong manner in which it may be done. This is clear
from the verse at which we have now arrived: "Thou hypocrite, first cast
out the beam out of thine own eye; and then shalt thou see clearly to
cast out the beam out of thy brother’s eye." Here our Lord makes known
the course which we must follow if we are to be of real help to those in
whose case the old saying is likely to prove true, "a stitch in time
saves nine—helping to correct a man’s fault often saves from having to
go to him about a much graver offence. But even here, the removing of a
tiny particle from the eye of another is not one which any careless hand
can successfully undertake, rather will such a hand irritate the other’s
eye and make bad matters worse.
First a word needs to be said on the epithet used by Christ on this
occasion. It looks back to the case described in verses 3 and 4, where
this evil habit of rashly censuring others, to which we are all so
prone, is represented as one steadily fixing his unfriendly gaze upon
the mote that is in his brother’s eye while indifferent to the beam
which is in his own—undertaking to correct some lesser fault in him
while allowing a much graver sin in himself. What else could our holy
Lord designate such a despicable person but a "hypocrite," that is, the
actor of a part, one pretending to be very zealous as to the
requirements of holiness while himself living in neglect of and
violating its plainest dictates? Uncompromising faithfulness would not
permit of Christ’s using any milder term. Yet there is no more reason
why we should conclude from this word that the one to whom it is applied
was unregenerate than from His declaring to Peter "thou art an offence
to Me" (Matthew 16:23) or His terming two of His disciples "fools" (Luke
24:25).
Had the one whom our Lord here addressed been an unregenerate soul, not
only would He have refrained from designating the one whom He censured
as "a brother," but we can scarcely conceive of Him going to the pains
of instructing one who was still dead in trespasses and sins what he
must first do in order that he might "see clearly to cast out the mote
out of his brother’s eye." No, it appears to us that the Lord designated
this careless believer who failed to judge himself unsparingly (though
seeking to correct another) a "hypocrite" to express His detestation
of such conduct, to let us know how it appears in His eyes, and
therefore to bring home to our hearts the gravity of a practice which we
are so ready to tolerate in ourselves. Nothing is more hateful to God
than play-acting, and we are guilty of this very thing when we pose as
faithful guardians of our brother’s interests while we are faithless in
our personal dealings with God Himself; while nothing is more pleasing
in His sight than honesty and sincerity, which is the opposite of
hypocrisy.
"First cast out the beam out of your own eye" means be faithful in
dealing with yourself, unsparingly judging yourself before God,
putting away out of your heart and life whatsoever you know to he
displeasing unto Him. This is the grand remedy for the disease of
unlawfully judging others, as it is the chief requirement if you are to
be of any real help in ministering to your erring brethren. Not only is
it utterly incongruous for one who is allowing and indulging in some
flagrant lust to pose as being grieved over some infirmity in another,
but one who is almost totally blinded spiritually (by arrogance and
hypocrisy) is utterly incapable of performing such a difficult and
delicate operation as the removal of a mote from his brother’s eye:
one who is under the influence of any gross sin not only has his
spiritual discernment obscured, but his spiritual sensibilities are so
blunted that he is unable to sympathize with a suffering one: such a one
is not only unfit to judge others, but thoroughly disqualified as a
critic and censor of their minor failings.
Casting the beam out of my own eye signifies unqualified judging of
myself before God (1 Cor. 11:21). My first responsibility is to
diligently examine my own heart, carefully consider my own ways,
critically measure myself by the unerring standard of Scripture and
honestly and constantly confess my many sins to God (Lam. 3:40). If
I am sincerely desirous of pleasing God in all things, I shall beg Him
to show me what there is in my own life which is displeasing to Him (Ps.
139:23, 24). If I truly long to show forth His praises (1 Pet. 2:9), I
shall not excuse my fleshly conduct, but shall condemn it and earnestly
seek grace to forsake the same. And if I genuinely wish to be of real
spiritual help unto my erring brethren, I shall rigidly purge myself of
everything which would defeat such efforts. Only as I am
unflinchingly faithful with myself can I hope to be of any assistance to
others. Clear vision is needed to locate and remove a "mote" from
the eye of another, and clear vision comes only from my own close
walking with Him who is light (Ps. 36:9; John 8:12). How much longer are
we going to suffer the beam in our own eye?
One principal reason why we are so slow in casting the beam out of our
own eye is that we fail to "perceive" it, as is intimated by Christ in
verse 3. Obviously this does not mean that we are totally unaware of its
presence, but rather that we fail to make conscience of the same. The
expression "perceive it not" has reference to an act of the mind which
follows upon the bare sight of anything consisting of serious
consideration and prolonged meditation. It is the word used in "consider
the lilies" of the field (Luke 12:27): that is, not only look upon them
but ponder them over in your mind. It is the word used in "a man that
beholds his natural face in a glass" (Jas. 1:23): that is, who gazes
steadily at it and considers each feature. Thus, "perceive not" in
Matthew 7:3, means a failure to consider and regard attentively. If we
are truly to perceive" the beam in our own eye, with the purpose of
casting it out, we must make conscience of the same, seriously
considering its heinousness in God’s sight, laboring to have our hearts
affected by it. It should be obvious that we shall never voluntarily and
deliberately eject from our hearts and lives that which we still love
and cherish, and therefore we must labor to have our hearts so affected
by our lusts and sins that we shall sorrow over and hate them. The
converse of this is that awful deadness of soul and security in sin,
which if undisturbed is certain to lead to the most fearful if not fatal
consequences. Proof of this appears in the case of the antediluvians, of
whom Christ declared they "knew not until the flood came and took them
all away" (Matthew 24:29): though they may have had some consciousness
of their carnality and madness, yet they thought not seriously thereon,
and so remained secure in their wickedness. A similar state of affairs
existed in Israel in the days of Jeremiah: the Lord complained that the
people made no conscience of their sins, remaining secure therein: "No
man repented him of his wickedness, saying, What have I done?" (8: 6).
Nothing is more serious and fatal than to commit sins and refuse to be
humbled by them, but instead to remain unconcerned. Sins must be laid to
heart and sorrowed over before they will be forsaken and expelled.
In order to be helpful at this point, it is necessary to be explicit, so
let us mention one or two things which are so often a "beam" in the eyes
of God’s people. First, hypocrisy, which whenever it dominates
the heart prevents all spiritual growth and fruit. Christians are guilty
of allowing this vile weed to flourish far more than they are aware of.
This is the case where we are more anxious to please men than the Lord;
where we are more diligent in seeking to perform the external
requirements of the first table of the Law than of the second—note how
Christ pressed the commandment of the second table on the rich young
ruler (Luke 18:20)—where we are more careful to please God in the
outward action than we are with the strength of our hearts. Another
great "beam" is spiritual pride, which also is most abhorrent
unto Him with whom we have to do. This it is which makes us pleased with
ourselves, self-confident, and to look down upon others. It is an inward
poison which prevents the health of grace within. It is that which marks
Laodiceans (Rev. 3:17). Finally, any particular besetting sin or lust
which is not resisted and mortified soon assumes the proportions of a
"beam" and effectually blinds our judgment.
An important practical question which needs to be answered at this stage
is, What course should be followed in order that we may feel the weight
of these "beams" pressing upon our hearts? Surely it must be by
counteracting that tendency within us to regard our sins lightly, to
look upon our own constitutional faults as mere "motes," and that must
he done by faithfully examining them in the light of God’s Word. More
particularly we ought to compare the sins of which we are guilty with
the original transgression of Adam. Are we not tolerating things in our
hearts and lives which are even greater evils than Adam’s eating of the
forbidden fruit considered in the act? Yet by that sin he not only
brought death upon himself, but also upon all his posterity! Again, if
we would perceive and feel the exceeding sinfulness of our sins we must
view them in the light of Calvary, and observe the fearful price which
had to be paid for the atonement of them. Finally, we must
contemplate the heinousness and guilt of our sins in view of the lake of
fire and brimstone, for nothing short of everlasting suffering is what
they deserve.
It is only as we feel the dreadful weight of our sins and their enormity
in the sight of the Holy One that we shall really cry out, "Hide Thy
face from my sins and blot out all mine iniquities. Create in me a clean
heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me" (Ps. 51:9, 10). But it
is not sufficient that we sorrow over our sins and seek God’s
forgiveness of them: we must labor to break them off and amend our evil
ways, striving by all means that sin may be weakened in us more and
more. It is the one who confesses and forsakes his sins who finds mercy
(Prov. 28:13): on the other band, "If I regard iniquity in my heart the
Lord will not hear me" (Ps. 66:18). Unless I cast the beam out of my own
eye, how can I attend to the mote in another’s? Unless I disallow and
mortify my lusts I am totally disqualified to rebuke sin in my brother.
"Create in me a clean heart, O God. . .Then will I teach transgressors
Thy ways" (Ps. 51:10, 13); when thou art converted, [recovered]
strengthen thy brethren" (Luke 22:32)!
"And then shalt you see clearly to cast out the mote out of your
brother’s eye." In order to remove a "mote" from another’s eye one
must be close to hum! Therein Christ intimates who are the ones we
should seek to help by correcting their faults, namely those who are
near to us and not strangers: those who are members of our own family,
intimate friends, and those with whom we are in close church fellowship.
Much harm has been done through ignoring this obvious and simple rule.
My responsibility is first unto myself, then unto those bearing intimate
ties: alas, not only do many think highly of themselves, but they allow
sentiment to hinder faithful dealings with those dear unto them. But
this necessity of closeness to one from whose eye I would remove a mote
not only connotes a nearness of relationship, but also a moral nearness,
winning a p lace in his affections and esteem; I cannot get close to
another while standing on a lofty pedestal of assumed self-superiority!
No service calls for more prayer, delicacy of feeling, spiritual
wisdom and meekness, than does this one. The motive impelling it must he
love: the end in view the glory of God: our aim the recovery of an
erring one. The eye is the most sensitive organ of the body and the
most easily damaged. A steady and gentle hand s required to extract the
foreign substance from it. Care should be taken in selecting the best
time to approach an erring brother, so that the reproof is likely to be
effectual: before Abigail admonished her husband for his churlish
conduct unto David, she waited till the wine had gone out of his head (1
Sam. 25:36, 37)—never correct one while he is in a towering rage. The
nature of the fault in the erring one must be weighed: whether it
proceed from human frailty or be some deliberate and high-handed sin, if
we are to speak to him a word in season." Pains should be taken to make
him see that he is at fault, that he has acted contrary to God’s Word,
for we are required to reprove and rebuke "with all longsuffering and
doctrine" (2 Tim. 4:2) and thereby deliver the admonition not in our own
name but in God’s.
"Brethren, if a man be overtaken in a fault, ye which are spiritual,
restore such an one in the spirit of meekness; considering thyself, lest
thou also be tempted" (Gal. 6:1). Only he who "spiritual"—who allows not
sin in himself, walks softly with God— is fit to approach a fellow
believer for this necessary and difficult task. We are to remember that
we are so united together in one family and fellowship that the
wrongdoing of one concerns all, and that it is in the interests of the
whole household of faith to seek the restoration of the erring one. Such
restoration can only be performed "in the spirit of meekness"—gentleness
and lowliness of heart—for harshness and arrogance repel, not win.
Whatever fault he has committed, let us not forget that but for Divine
grace we too would fall in the same way, as we acknowledge to God
whenever we pray "lead us not into temptation." What we say to him must
not only be "a word in season" but "fitly spoken" (Prov. 25:11)!
Finally, it should be pointed out that if we are to remove the mote from
another’s eye he must be willing for us to do so—any spirit of
resistance makes the operation impossible. The very figure used by
Christ here plainly connotes that each of us should freely submit
ourselves to brotherly correction—"submitting yourselves one to
another in the fear of God" (Eph. 5:21). It is very reprehensible and
evidences a sad state of soul when we resent and oppose the faithful
admonitions of our Christian friends, like the Israelite said to Moses
when he reproved him, "Who made thee a prince and judge over us?" (Ex.
2:14). "Poverty and shame shall be to him that refuses instruction: but
he that regards reproof shall be honored" (Prov. 13:18). "He that
refuses instruction despises his own soul: but he that hears reproof
gets understanding (Prov. 15:32). "It is better to hear the rebuke of
the wise than for a man to hear the song of fools" (Eccl. 7:5): though
the song of fools may be more pleasant to our ears, yet the reproofs of
the wise are more profitable to our souls, if we heed the same.
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