Look in the Mirror Before Pointing Out the Flaws of Others

I have not written in a few days; it’s been an adventure, but we finally have (nearly) everything working in the office, so that we’re able to function again. Maybe it was a good thing. This weekend, I saw friends who, politically, are either right or left leaning, demonizing one another and using the bible to do it, and I felt the strong urge to reply. I didn’t then, but I suppose I will now: STOP USING THE BIBLE TO SUPPORT YOUR IDEOLOGY. Seriously. Jesus didn’t say “they will know you are my disciples by how you argue your point of view.” He said ““This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you.” (John 14). Too many of us are quick to judge the flaws (or what we perceive to be flaws) in others because their point of view does not align with ours; we all, however, should seek to align with Scripture, and stop trying to make it align with us. Scripture DOES tell the truth, but it is a weapon that should be against lies. The only division it should sow should be the believer from the non-believer. It is (for the most part) straight forward, and should cause us to remove the plank from our own eyes before we go looking for the specks of dust in everyone else’s. Scripture is best used, first, as a mirror: examine yourself by it before you can point to someone else with it. If I am found lacking in thought or action, it is I who should change. Then, when I DO warn someone of what it says, I point to myself, my former way of thinking, and how God through Christ, the Holy Spirit, and Scripture has changed my mind. And, if Scripture is a mirror, look at yourself before pointing out the flaws in others.

John 14

“I am the true vine, and my Father is the vinedresser. Every branch in me that does not bear fruit he takes away, and every branch that does bear fruit he prunes, that it may bear more fruit. Already you are clean because of the word that I have spoken to you. Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me. I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing. If anyone does not abide in me he is thrown away like a branch and withers; and the branches are gathered, thrown into the fire, and burned. If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. By this my Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit and so prove to be my disciples. As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Abide in my love. If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and abide in his love. These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full.

“This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends. You are my friends if you do what I command you. No longer do I call you servants, for the servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all that I have heard from my Father I have made known to you. You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should abide, so that whatever you ask the Father in my name, he may give it to you. These things I command you, so that you will love one another.

“If the world hates you, know that it has hated me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love you as its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you. Remember the word that I said to you: ‘A servant is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you. If they kept my word, they will also keep yours. But all these things they will do to you on account of my name, because they do not know him who sent me. If I had not come and spoken to them, they would not have been guilty of sin but now they have no excuse for their sin. Whoever hates me hates my Father also. If I had not done among them the works that no one else did, they would not be guilty of sin, but now they have seen and hated both me and my Father. But the word that is written in their Law must be fulfilled: ‘They hated me without a cause.’

“But when the Helper comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth, who proceeds from the Father, he will bear witness about me. And you also will bear witness, because you have been with me from the beginning.