Whether you eat or drink, or
whatever you do, do all to the glory of God. —1 Corinthians 10:31
{CHAMBERS} “Beware of allowing yourself to think that the shallow
aspects of life are not ordained by God; they are ordained by Him equally as
much as the profound. We sometimes refuse to be shallow, not out of our deep
devotion to God but because we wish to impress other people with the fact that
we are not shallow. This is a sure sign of spiritual pride. We must be careful,
for this is how contempt for others is produced in our lives. And it causes us
to be a walking rebuke to other people because they are more shallow than we
are. Beware of posing as a profound person— God became a baby. To be shallow is
not a sign of being sinful, nor is shallowness an indication that there is no
depth to your life at all— the ocean has a shore. Even the shallow things of
life, such as eating and drinking, walking and talking, are ordained by God.
These are all things our Lord did. He did them as the Son of God, and He said,
“A disciple is not above his teacher…” (Matthew 10:24).[…] Never show the depth
of your life to anyone but God. We are so nauseatingly serious, so desperately
interested in our own character and reputation […] You may find that the first
person you must be the most critical with, as being the greatest fraud you have
ever known, is yourself..”
{ELGIN} Henry David Thoreau said, “The mass of men lead lives of
quiet desperation.” In general, most
people are very aware of what is wrong with them and don’t have any idea of
what to do about it. Moreover, they don’t
want others to know that they are flawed. Too late! If you have spiritual
understanding, you will know that “all have sinned” …. “There is none righteous”
… “all we, like sheep, have gone astray” … “we are jars of clay” … we have no
hope, but for Jesus! Our tendency is to try to hide our imperfections .. or at
minimum make excuses for them … and condemn the imperfections in others. Jesus spoke of the speck and the log. (Matthew
7:3-5) “Why do you see the speck that is in your brother's eye, but do not
notice the log that is in your own eye? Or how can you say to your brother, ‘Let me
take the speck out of your eye,’ when there is the log in your own eye? You
hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see
clearly to take the speck out of your brother's eye.” The Apostle John wrote (1 John 2:16-18) “For all that is in the world—the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride of life—is
not from the Father but is from the world. And the world is passing away along
with its desires, but whoever does the will of God abides forever.” It’s your
pride or the lack of it that drives you to judgement.
That is not to say that you
ignore sin. Or that there should not be consequence for sins. But be careful about judging others. God does that. You who have spiritual understanding should
see the struggle of the soul for what it is .. the need for Jesus .. new life
in Him. You were once lost but now your
found .. was blind but now you see. How
did Jesus respond to sinners? He told
them to repent .. to have faith in Him.
They did not all do that then … and they do not all do that now … Just
be careful that you don’t sin in your eagerness to find fault in others. In psychology the term is “projection”. Where a person projects their shortcomings
onto others. It is easier .. less
stressful if you can deal with your problem in someone else’s life. (Speck and Log)
In this case, the speck you see is
merely a reflection of the log in your own eye.
The bottom line is that our focus is on ourselves and not on Jesus. So stop looking at others, even stop looking
at yourself, and look to Jesus. (Philippians
4:8) “Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever
is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if
there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about
these things.”
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