(Audio)
Can a blind person guide a blind person?
Will not both fall into a pit?
If the teacher has a wooden beam in his eye, as did the Pharisees, it is inevitable that he will lead his students into a pit. The Pharisees were exceptionally practiced at finding all of the splinters in the eyes of others, but were unable to recognize the beams occluding their own vision. They pointed out all of the subtle and nuanced ways in which others did not meet their standards for adherence to the law. But they failed to recognize the corruption in their own hearts. There was no way for students who were being fed a curriculum like this to become superior to the teachers from whom they received it. They would instead become like their teacher. With the Pharisees this was not what one would want. But in the case of the disciples of Jesus it was good news indeed that his disciples could become like him. Only Jesus had the clarity of vision to help others remove the beams from their eyes, since his own eyes were not affected by any splinter of sin. This clarity that was within him was what made him light to others, not to all, but to those who would accept him (see John 1:9-13) and walk by his light.
The light is among you for a little while longer. Walk while you have the light, lest darkness overtake you. The one who walks in the darkness does not know where he is going (see John 12:35).
Who is our teacher? We would like to say that it is Jesus. But are our lives becoming more like his? Are we first addressing the issues in our own lives and in our own hearts so that we can have a similar clarity of vision to that of Jesus? Or are we distracting ourselves from our own issues by focusing on those of others? We do want to be able to be of assistance to others working through their own moral issues. But in order to do more harm than good for them we must first ensure that our motives are as pure as possible. If we act in ways that seem superficially helpful but are intrinsically selfish we will do damage to both them and to ourselves.
We want to be sufficiently free from our own sinful compulsions that they don't interfere with our ability to preach the Gospel, since we all might say with Paul, "woe to me if I do not preach it!". Rather than being controlled by our own egos and living for ourselves we need the freedom to give ourselves to others "for the sake of the Gospel" in order to "win over as many as possible". Doing so take diligence and discipline. But it is worth it since the reward a crown that is"imperishable".
Will not both fall into a pit?
If the teacher has a wooden beam in his eye, as did the Pharisees, it is inevitable that he will lead his students into a pit. The Pharisees were exceptionally practiced at finding all of the splinters in the eyes of others, but were unable to recognize the beams occluding their own vision. They pointed out all of the subtle and nuanced ways in which others did not meet their standards for adherence to the law. But they failed to recognize the corruption in their own hearts. There was no way for students who were being fed a curriculum like this to become superior to the teachers from whom they received it. They would instead become like their teacher. With the Pharisees this was not what one would want. But in the case of the disciples of Jesus it was good news indeed that his disciples could become like him. Only Jesus had the clarity of vision to help others remove the beams from their eyes, since his own eyes were not affected by any splinter of sin. This clarity that was within him was what made him light to others, not to all, but to those who would accept him (see John 1:9-13) and walk by his light.
The light is among you for a little while longer. Walk while you have the light, lest darkness overtake you. The one who walks in the darkness does not know where he is going (see John 12:35).
Who is our teacher? We would like to say that it is Jesus. But are our lives becoming more like his? Are we first addressing the issues in our own lives and in our own hearts so that we can have a similar clarity of vision to that of Jesus? Or are we distracting ourselves from our own issues by focusing on those of others? We do want to be able to be of assistance to others working through their own moral issues. But in order to do more harm than good for them we must first ensure that our motives are as pure as possible. If we act in ways that seem superficially helpful but are intrinsically selfish we will do damage to both them and to ourselves.
We want to be sufficiently free from our own sinful compulsions that they don't interfere with our ability to preach the Gospel, since we all might say with Paul, "woe to me if I do not preach it!". Rather than being controlled by our own egos and living for ourselves we need the freedom to give ourselves to others "for the sake of the Gospel" in order to "win over as many as possible". Doing so take diligence and discipline. But it is worth it since the reward a crown that is"imperishable".
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