CAST…THE BEAM OUT OF THINE OWN EYE

At the end of the Lord’s teaching, He gives a few illustrations in the form of parables that seem to drive home the point or points of His message. This section has three parables that help us understand what the Lord has been teaching. The first parable concerns vision and leadership. The second concerns fruitbearing and nature, while the third concerns house building and foundations. Our lesson today concerns vision and its necessity in both leadership and teaching.

One of the basic lessons in leadership is that the leader must know where he is going, and yet this is just where leaders can fall down: ‘Where there is no vision, the people perish: but he that keepeth the law, happy is he’, Prov. 29. 18. If those who lead do not know or have proper insight into the word of God they remain in the dark concerning the mind of God. If that is the case how can they lead others? One of the requirements of elders in 1 Timothy chapter 3 is ‘apt to teach’, v. 2. But how can an elder teach others that which he doesn’t know himself? Or how can he teach if he is a novice in his experience with God?

The text goes on to say that it would be hypocritical to try to help others who have a problem seeing the way if he is so blinded by that which is hindering him knowing the way. The hyperbole that the Lord uses would be amusing if it wasn’t so serious. How can a teacher help others when he is so blinded by problems in his own life? The teacher must first apply the scriptures to his own life and have made things right at home before he can help anyone else. For example, how can a teacher teach on marriage when his own marriage is falling apart?

James said, ‘My brethren, be not many masters, knowing that we shall receive the greater condemnation’, James 3. 1. The good leaders have learned how to follow the Master. They have learned the word of God at the Master’s feet, and have examined their lives in the light of the word of God. They can see properly to help others with their problems because they have examined themselves and have been corrected by the Master. They both know how to correct and have the Master’s gentleness to deal with the problem without doing greater damage.