A man walked around the village wearing a most interesting coat. All
down the front it was covered with patches of various sizes, but most of
them were large.
When asked why the coat was patched in such a remarkable way, he answered that the patches represented the sins of his neighbors. He pointed to each patch and gave the story of the sin of someone in the village.
On the back of his coat there was a small patch. On being asked what it represented, he said, "That is my own sin, and I cannot see it."How do you treat a fellow believer who succumbs to the pressure of temptation and falls into sin?
Are you so ready to condemn them and to go telling all you know how much of a sinner this individual is or do you find them to encourage them and pray with them that they may be able to overcome?
Someone said that the Christian army is the only army where we kill our own soldiers. Don’t get me wrong, I am not saying that we overlook sin and behave like it’s all ok, no, that is not what I am saying. We can be discerning rather than be negative.
When someone falls short, do you seek to bring them back to a place of restoration or do you heap all the more condemnation to them? What about you? What about the log in your eye? What do you have to say about that?
I find this illustration from Jesus to be very interesting. The log in your eye means you have bigger issues to deal with than the speck you are trying to so publicly remove from your brother’s eye.
If you would deal with your issues first you would have a clearer view to even remove the speck in your brother’s eye. Many times we draw the attention to the speck in our brother’s eye so as to remove the attention and to hide from view the log in our eye.
Doing so makes us feel better because we parade ourselves as better than our brother, but it is all a lie! Do you find it easy to magnify the faults of others while excusing your own?
Before you do that, check to see whether you deserve the same kind of criticism, then lovingly forgive and love your brother!
When asked why the coat was patched in such a remarkable way, he answered that the patches represented the sins of his neighbors. He pointed to each patch and gave the story of the sin of someone in the village.
On the back of his coat there was a small patch. On being asked what it represented, he said, "That is my own sin, and I cannot see it."How do you treat a fellow believer who succumbs to the pressure of temptation and falls into sin?
Are you so ready to condemn them and to go telling all you know how much of a sinner this individual is or do you find them to encourage them and pray with them that they may be able to overcome?
Someone said that the Christian army is the only army where we kill our own soldiers. Don’t get me wrong, I am not saying that we overlook sin and behave like it’s all ok, no, that is not what I am saying. We can be discerning rather than be negative.
When someone falls short, do you seek to bring them back to a place of restoration or do you heap all the more condemnation to them? What about you? What about the log in your eye? What do you have to say about that?
I find this illustration from Jesus to be very interesting. The log in your eye means you have bigger issues to deal with than the speck you are trying to so publicly remove from your brother’s eye.
If you would deal with your issues first you would have a clearer view to even remove the speck in your brother’s eye. Many times we draw the attention to the speck in our brother’s eye so as to remove the attention and to hide from view the log in our eye.
Doing so makes us feel better because we parade ourselves as better than our brother, but it is all a lie! Do you find it easy to magnify the faults of others while excusing your own?
Before you do that, check to see whether you deserve the same kind of criticism, then lovingly forgive and love your brother!
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