Have you said something that you said you were going to do but you haven’t? Then critique others when they procrastinate or are lazy in doing something?
Have you confessed a sin but then find yourself back in that sin? Then act as if you’re not while talking about others who are also struggling?
“Engaging in the same behavior or activity for which one criticizes another or the practice of claiming to have moral standards or beliefs to which one's own behavior does not conform […] failure to follow one's own expressed moral rules and principles.” This is how the word hypocrite is defined.
We all have fallen short from sin or fail to do the things we planned on doing. But what makes one a hypocrite is while in that fallen place, they act as if they are not there themselves, and instead, judge those around them who are in that same fallen state.
Have you ever had an eyelash in your eye? Or dust? It gets hard to see out of that eye, right? Your vision may get blurry, and it gets difficult to open and close… You’re uncomfortable and can’t think of anything else but that eyelash or dust until it’s gone.
Now imagine a PLANK OR A LOG IN YOUR EYE…. That’s way more than uncomfortable, that’s unbearable! That log in our own eye sometimes distorts our view of the speck in someone else’s eye. We can’t see properly; it’s like the blind leading the blind through a treacherous path. Please ask yourself this.
Why does their speck bother me so much when the log I have isn’t even out of my own eye?
It’s easier to look at others’ flaws than to stand in the mirror and point out your own. It’s hard, ugly, uncomfortable, and sometimes just so unbearable but guess what? The ugliest things can turn out to be the most beautiful. The tough and thick walls guarding your struggles, through God’s grace and mercy, can be transformed into the sweetest and warmest embrace of forgiveness and understanding.
So let’s remember this, be the light so others can see. To see the light the Lord is shining upon you so that they may also follow Him!
