The Splinter, Part 2
“Do not judge, so that you won’t be judged. For you will be judged by the same standard with which you judge others, and you will be measured by the same measure you use. Why do you look at the splinter in your brother’s eye but don’t notice the beam of wood in your own eye? Or how can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the splinter out of your eye,’ and look, there’s a beam of wood in your own eye? Hypocrite! First take the beam of wood out of your eye, and then you will see clearly to take the splinter out of your brother’s eye. Don’t give what is holy to dogs or toss your pearls before pigs, or they will trample them under their feet, turn, and tear you to pieces.” – Matthew 7:1-6
Yesterday, we discussed how to examine the sin in ourselves before ministering to a friend in Christ struggling with the same sin. When we do the self-evaluation work, we can enter a righteous judgment of a friend that doesn’t come from pride but love.
In our example, a friend on your team is struggling with lust, leading them to be unfaithful in their current relationship. You have examined yourself and asked the Lord for forgiveness for areas where lust lives. Now that you have done that, Jesus tells us that we can see our friend’s sin more clearly and how to help fix the problem better now that our hearts and minds are clear from lust.
The last piece of discernment that Jesus tells us is in Matthew 7:6. He tells us to not throw what is holy before the animals, or it might be torn to pieces. Here, Jesus is saying to discern if your teammate is ready to listen to your correction of their sin. If their heart is deep in sin and they cannot listen, it wouldn’t be beneficial; it would just cause pain. This is where prayer plays a vast part in correction. We must pray for our teammates, ask the Spirit to reveal their sins and open the door for us to have a fruitful conversation.
- Is there a friend who you feel convicted to help at this time?
- What scares you about the correction of a friend?
“Lord, give us discernment to know when to speak and pray. Help us to not avoid confrontation but to seek the words from Your Holy Spirit to guide us. Help us to pray consistently for our friends who we know are struggling, and help us to not forget to look inward before we speak outward. Amen.”
