Theme: THE DANGER OF HYPOCRISY
Text: “And why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brother’s eye, but considerest not the beam that is in thine own eye? Or how wilt thou say to thy brother, Let me pull out the mote out of thine eye; and, behold, a beam is in thine own eye? Thou hypocrite, first cast out the beam out of thine own eye; and then shalt thou see clearly to cast out the mote out of thy brother’s eye”. – Matthew 7:3-5.
Comment: A mote is a particle of dust, a speck, a splinter, an irritating particle in the eye; while a beam is a huge piece of wood. The Oxford Dictionary of Phrase and Fable states that the phrase a mote in a person’s eye “is a fault observed in another person by a person who ignores a greater fault in his or her own”.
Our Lord Jesus Christ described as hypocrites some of the Jews who adorned themselves in saintly garbs, made bombastic claims and were fond of reproving others whereas they were committing even greater sins. In his commentary on the above text, Albert Barnes states: “When we shall have as much zeal to correct ourselves, as we have inclination to reprove and correct others, we shall know our own defects better…It is not everyone who is fit to reprove. Those who are themselves guilty of the same faults of which they accuse others, or of worse, bring shame upon themselves…”
St. Paul of Bible fame addressing the believers in Rome said: “Therefore thou art inexcusable, O man, whosoever thou art that judgest: for wherein thou judgest another, thou condemnest thyself; for thou that judgest doest the same things”. (Romans 2:1) The bottom line of Christ’s statement is that a man who is guilty of an act is morally unfit to judge or condemn others of the same offence. It is hypocrisy.