FEBRUARY 15 THE JESUS QUESTIONS JQ#04 “And why do you look at the speck in your brother’s eye, but do not consider the plank in your own eye?” (Matthew 7:3)

 

FEBRUARY 15  THE JESUS QUESTIONS   

JQ#04  “And why do you look at the speck in your brother’s eye,

 but do not consider the plank in your own eye?” 

(Matthew 7:3)

LIVING FOR JESUS Daily Prayer    

JESUS, I pray today that Your Spirit will move among all families and that all

 hurt and all separations will be dissolved so that a Great Healing will begin

 in each and every family. Lord, there is no hope for mankind if mankind 

remains removed from the family unit established by God and those 

institutions set up for the good of the family by the Creator God and 

Everlasting Father. Jesus, You said that You and the Father are One and 

You prayed that we could be One with You and the Father, so Lord that

 is my prayer today, that Your Spirit will unite all families that we can be 

One with You, and the Father, and the Holy Spirit of God!     

AMEN

THE JESUS QUESTIONS

JESUS is the Great Physician and the only One qualified to do “I Surgery” 

(see February 14) and successfully remove the “speck” in our brother’s eye

 and the “plank” from our own! We examined ourselves on the aspect 

of “judging” as we began looking at JQ#04, Jesus points out to us that

 we are in danger of becoming worse off ourselves than the one we have

 tried to “judge” when He asks,

 

JQ#04 “And why do you look at the speck in your brother’s eye, 

but do not consider the plank in your own eye?” (Matthew 7:3) 

Jesus immediately followed that Question with an identical Question 

just in case we didn’t get it the first time: 

“Or how can you say to your brother, ‘Let me remove the speck

 from your eye’; and look, a plank is in your own eye?” (Matthew 7:4)  

Two Questions back to back (JQ#4a & JQ#4b) from Jesus and both demand

 we stop and consider what is happening in our life BEFORE we stop

 and try to “judge” what is going on in someone else’s life! The language 

Jesus uses always makes it clear what His meaning is and in this 

case Jesus immediately asks the Questions and then before waiting for 

an answer He uses the word “Hypocrite!” He makes it clear that He is calling 

the one that “judges others” without first looking at himself IS the “Hypocrite!”

 Jesus makes this evident when He states:

 “Hypocrite! First remove the plank from your own eye…” (Matthew 7:5a) 

leaving no doubt that the “Hypocrite!” is the one that fails to see that we 

should seek to be righteous before God before we try to judge the

 righteousness of others.  Jesus gives us a reward for doing things 

as He commands for He states that if we will first examine 

ourselves and resolve our own issues 

“…then you will see clearly to remove 

the speck from your brother’s eye.” (Matthew 7:5b)

 Jesus is saying if we do not judge others then He will give us discernment

 to actually help others instead of judging them! Doing things from the

 Jesus Perspective keeps our attention on Proper Priorities and it is

 only Proper Perspective when we keep a right-relationship with God as 

the first order of business! We are to continually examine ourselves and

 our motives and when we are sure that we have taken care of spiritual 

business in the order and manner which God commands, then and only 

then can we be useful in doing God’s work and help others

 instead of judging others. 

God always holds those that want to serve Him to a higher standard 

so we must be aware of the responsibility of being called Christians!  

Each JESUS Question points to a Spiritual Standard: 

JQ#01 - “…glorify your Father (Creator) in Heaven…” 

JQ#02 - “…therefore you shall be perfect…(strive to improve)” 

JQ#03 - “…seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness…” and now in 

JQ#04 - “do not judge…” but [remove our own unrighteous] “plank” 

from our lives before we try to [remove the unrighteous] “speck” from theirs.” 

The next verse I still struggle with and I pray for God to direct my heart 

on Matthew 7:6 “Do not give what is holy to the dogs…” ——— 

surely it somehow ties in with Matthew 7:1-5!!!

FEBRUARY 14 THE JESUS QUESTIONS JQ#04 “And why do you look at the speck in your brother’s eye, but do not consider the plank in your own eye?” (Matthew 7:3)

 

FEBRUARY 14  THE JESUS QUESTIONS

  JQ#04  “And why do you look at the speck in your brother’s eye,

 but do not consider the plank in your own eye?” 

(Matthew 7:3)

LIVING FOR JESUS  Daily Prayer    

JESUS, Praise Your Holy Name for You Lord have given up more than

 anyone will ever give up and You did it out of Pure Obedience to 

the Father’s Will and Master Plan of Salvation for all mankind.

 Praise be to the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit for the Plan of Salvation.

Let us not question why God chose Jesus as the Only Way to enter 

into Holy Fellowship with the Father,

 but let us instead be joyful and rejoice that God has prepared The Way

 for  sinners to be saved! 

Jesus is the Name and the Way to Eternal Life with the Father

 and the Way to live more abundantly on this earth. Lord, I choose to live

 with You in heaven and pray to be always focused on the Way to get there.     

AMEN

THE JESUS QUESTIONS

JESUS has so far asked us with His first three Questions: (JQ#01) to consider 

that we have been made in the image of God and therefore in God’s Plan

 for mankind He has decided that we, through our daily lives are to 

represent Him as the “salt” and the “light” of the earth and (JQ#02) our

 attention is directed towards separating ourselves from the world,

 not to isolate ourselves but to let our “light” shine through the darkness

 in the world — our “light” is to be Powered by God’s Greatest Gift to

 mankind, His “Love” which He desires to bestow on the world. 

In order to make our “light” shine brightly we have to

 “Love others” like God “Loves” us. 

Then (JQ#03) Jesus asked us to look around at how God has taken care

 of His world and has provided so abundantly for His Creation and answer honestly,

 “Is not life more than bread, and the body more than clothing?” 

which if we do answer honestly we will see that the world is “physical” and 

in a “fallen” state but through God we can see the “Spiritual” world and 

the possibilities of “Hope” that exist through following 

God’s Plan for the “Spiritual” life which He offers freely to all 

that will “believe” and have “Faith in God and His Plan for Mankind”. 

That brings us to the next Question (JQ#04) Jesus places before us, 

and Jesus with JQ#04 does in the same manner with this 4th Question

 what He did in Teaching us about “Worry” in JQ#03 by starting out with

 an imperative statement of the 

Truth of God: “Judge not, that you be not judged.” 

(Matthew 7:1) 

Jesus is very clear on how He feels about us judging others, and it only

 takes 2 well placed words for Jesus to say all that needs to be said about

 “Judging” in this verse as He states “Judge not…” and then He uses

 5 more words — “…that you be not judged…” for a total of just 7 words

 to Teach us all we need to know to pass a spiritual test on 

“Should we as Christians judge others?” 

If we stop and listen to what Jesus is Teaching on “judging” then we

 can also confidently answer “Why” we should 

refrain from “judging others”. 

Jesus continues this important section on “judging others” which boils

 down to adjusting our attitudes spiritually to promote a positive attitude

 from others in the next verse:

 “For with what judgment you judge, you will be judged; 

and with the measure you use, it will be measured back to you.”

 (Matthew 7:2) 

What may seem obvious on the “physical” surface to our worldly eyes 

may need to have the surface scratched “Spiritually” a little for that 

“digging deeper study” on “judging others” by our worldly viewpoint.

  Jesus does make it clear what our initial action should be

 when He asks

 JQ#04: “And why do you look at the speck in your brother’s eye,

 but do not consider the plank in your own eye?” (Matthew 7:3) 

Every time I read this section I get the impression that the Holy Spirit is 

telling me that if I observe something in someone else that makes me

 want to “judge them” then I should immediately run to a mirror and look to

 see what I am doing in my own life that generated that erroneous feeling?

 I always call this section “I” surgery because it is my personal belief 

that Jesus is telling us that 

we should operate on ourself 

to correct our “Spiritual Blindness” 

and to be acceptable in God’s eyes 

before we should operate on someone else 

so they are acceptable to us. 

Jesus is telling us that there may indeed be a “speck” in my brother’s eye

 but if I try to take God’s place and pass “judgment on” the “speck” in my

 brother’s eye that in “Reality” from God’s perspective I have effectively 

blinded myself by inserting a “plank” in my own “I” and just as we 

cannot save someone else from their sins

 (because only Jesus has that Power to Save) 

it is our responsibility to share the Gospel of Jesus with them — 

apply the principal of letting the “I” Surgeon do “I” Surgery” in this

 “speck removal operation” — we are not to perform the “I” Surgery operation

 on our brother, but we should refer them to Jesus 

and let the Great Physician do what only He can. 

This is a difficult Question/Lesson so we should look closely at what Lesson

 the Master Surgeon has to Teach us in this section on the subject of

 “I” surgery.