Why Don't You Pay Attention to the Plank in Your Own Eye?

If you think that judgmental people are a problem in the world, you can rest assured that Jesus agrees with you. He has many interactions that revolve around this issue. Just think about his teaching that prayer shouldn’t be self-aggrandizing, but a humble interaction with God. When there is a woman caught in adultery, he says his famous words, “let the one without sin cast the first stone.”

He takes particular aim at people who hypocritically criticize others while it’s glaringly obvious that they have issues of their own. He gets at this by asking a question that paints a funny picture:, “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?”

In Matthew 7:1-6, Jesus wants to help you to grow in intimacy with other believers — to get past the masks we wear in public, to risk rejection to finally allow ourselves to be vulnerable at a level that matches the depth of God's grace.