100 Days on Jesus’ Sermon Mount (Day 72)

Jesus said, “Or how can you say to another person, ‘Let me remove the speck from your eye,’ while you have a beam in your own eye?”

— Matthew 7:4 (USC)

Imperious is the Word of God. It cuts through all falsity with vigour to leave the truth exposed for all who would see. The lies are washed away by the tide of reality when the Word of God rails against the would-be purveyors of accusation. The Word of God is a lamp, a guide, a wonderful testament to the fact of God, a beautiful assurance of good things here and to come!

Jesus, in this passage of Scripture, is cutting right to the chase. “Why are you propagating a lie?” he is saying. “Why are you insisting on refusing my voice in your life?” he adds. “When will you acknowledge the glaringly personal truth that my grace gives by provision?” he concludes.

“Your life is not about them, it’s about you!”

If we would be disciples of the one and only true and living God — Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, in unity — then we would contemplate the majesty of God’s Words as they speak most powerfully and most definitely into our own experience.

Faith is principally a vertical relationship, with the Lord above through the Holy Spirit. We only ever get to fellowship — with veracity — horizontally when we are, conditionally, in right relationship with God; a thing contingent on intimacy. Right relationship can only ensue when we have cast our own burdens, our sins, our own ineptitudes, and our own lack before him, alone, who can help!

Oh what a tragedy it is that people fill their minds with all proclivities of knowledge and yet miss the mark when opposed to God’s heart!

God’s Spirit admonishes us to humility. And if we listen to the rhythm of God’s heartbeat we will find a peace — a tranquil shalom — superseding our otherwise shallow understanding. For, if we listen for God through the stethoscope of life we shall find more than enough to ponder within our own personal experience. And we can tell we are on the right path — we grow and we live at peace and in harmony with everyone. This is because we are self-interested in growth. Other people’s growth is God’s business.

This life is all about me — me and God. Intimacy with God through his Word, as we pray over it, as we study it not simply for the mind’s edification, but for the soul’s nourishment, is inner delight. We are shown our folly. We are shown our need. We are shown the way. When I have my relationship with God established and maintained, then, and only then, am I in the position to see that the speck in the other person’s eye is actually a glimmer of God’s grace, as he works in them.

The beam removed is grace imparted.

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Intimacy with God is our best vehicle toward grace with others.

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QUESTIONS in REVIEW:

1.     You know persons who do this, right? They pretend they know you and your situation and what’s right and wrong for you. Behind their ignorant arrogance, what are they missing?

2.     How is grace an outworking of your life in the company of clowns?

© 2015 S. J. Wickham.

Note: USC version is Under the Southern Cross, The New Testament in Australian English (2014). This translation was painstakingly developed by Dr Richard Moore, a NT Greek scholar, over nearly thirty years.