Of mote and beam

Luke 6:40-41 And why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brother's eye, but perceivest not the beam that is in thine own. Either how canst thou say to thy brother, Brother, let me pull out the mote that is in thine eye, when thou thyself beholdest not the beam that is in thine own eye? Thou hypocrite, cast out first the beam out of thine own eye, and then shalt thou see clearly to pull out the mote that is in thy brother's eye.

This passage has stayed with me since the Friday before the last. I still can remember the phrase clearly in my ears, 'always remember that when you can see the mote in someone else's eyes, there is a beam in your own'. Clearly, this is not to mean that we are being ignorant and accommodating of what is wrong; but before I become quick to judge, I clearly need to examine myself. People are placed around us so that we can see ourselves as we truly are: 'Iron sharpeneth iron; so a man sharpeneth the countenance of his friend.'

I was reading a passage written by Oswald Chambers and he puts it across so beautifully: "Many of the things in life that inflict the greatest injury, grief, or pain, stem from the fact that we suffer from illusions. We are not true to one another as facts, seeing each other as we really are; we are only true to our misconceived ideas of one another. According to our thinking, everything is either delightful and good, or it is evil, malicious, and cowardly."

Left hanging