It’s very easy to focus on others. Be consumed by the way they live. Their sin.
It’s easy to call them out. Talk at length as to why they need to change.
But that’s a trap. Judging others is a trap. The longer we stay there the less likely we’ll change the only person we can, ourselves.
Log versus Splinter
In Matthew, Jesus tells a story about a man so consumed with a splinter in another’s eye, that he fails to notice the log in his own.
Think about the balance of that analogy. Log versus Splinter. One is tiny, one is huge. One would kill you if it fell on you, you wouldn’t even notice the other one.
But that’s the trap we fall into. When we’re focusing on others, we overlook so much sin in our lives because of one thing someone did.
Change Starts With You
In America, sometimes we fight and argue about change. Elect our politicans to get “Christian” laws passed. We’re a “Christian nation” for goodness sake.
But to really change our society, we have to start with changing ourselves. Committing ourselves to becoming more like Christ.
There’s always going to be “others” to focus on and distract us. But we have to resist that temptation.
Focus on Yourself
If you’d ask your spouse or kids, which one do you think they’d rather change? You? Or some random person you have a grudge against?
They are obviously way more concerned with how you are acting.
You being more like Christ would radically change their lives.
Why not focus on that? Why not give the people closest to you a more Christlike version of yourself?
I think that we’re not convinced that Jesus’s way works. Does giving up ourselves really help those around us? We’d rather have public recognition, or lots of money because we see those things as “valuable”.
But that’s a lie. A lie we need to defeat. There is nothing more important than choosing to put away worldly values, and treating the people closest to us how Jesus would want us to.