Judge not that you be not judged. For with what measurement you use, it will be measured back to you. And why do you look at the speck in your brother’s eye, but do not consider the plank in your own eye? 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?
Hypocrite! First remove the plank from your own eye, then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye.     Matthew 7:1-5 NKJV

Many phrases that we use today come from the Sermon on the Mount. We like to pull some of these verses out of context and use them to stress our point. We say things like an eye for an eye, turn the other cheek or don’t cast your pearls before swine. And two of them come from our Scripture passage for today. Judge not lest you be judged and remove the plank from your eye before removing the speck from your brother’s eye.

Our Scripture passage today is telling us to avoid hypocrisy. I was reading Warren Wiersbe’s commentary on how to avoid hypocrisy and the first thing he says we must do is to be honest with God in our secret lives.

I believe this is one of the biggest mistakes we make as Christians. And before you say something like, “I’m an open book” or “I have no secrets,” think about it for a minute. Is there nothing in your life that you’d prefer to keep hidden from others? We have all said and done things we wish we hadn’t. Paul said in Romans 3:23 we have all sinned and have fallen short of the glory of God. Sometimes our sin is public, and other sins are hidden. We don’t want them exposed. We keep them tucked away. They usually come with a great deal of shame and regret.

So, what does Warren Wiersbe mean when he says we have to be honest with God in our secret lives. God knows our sins. He knew we would commit them before we committed them. They do not surprise or shock Him. You may have them well hidden from many people, but they are not hidden from God. Come clean and confess your sins. We are told in 1 John 1:9 that if we confess our sins, He is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

What Jesus is saying when He refers to the planks in our eyes is our secret sin or our secret lives. We have to come clean. We don’t have to stand on a mountain top and tell the world, but we do have to get down on our knees and confess them to the Lord. We must repent and ask for forgiveness.

The Bible tells us once God forgives our sins, they are forgotten and He removes us as far from them as the east is from the west. But we must never forget that we are all sinners.

When we look at others and pass judgment, we must remember that we are all sinners saved by grace. We all need a Savior.

Our former pastor used to say that we shouldn’t judge others, but we must inspect the fruit. What he meant was only God can see someone’s heart and truly understand their motives. But we can see their attitude and their actions. We are to avoid evil (1 Thessalonians 5:22).

We should pray for discernment. We must be able to discern good from evil. We use God’s holy word as our measuring tool.

But we must never forget that none of us are perfect and we should not try to judge what is in someone’s heart for that is God’s job and only He can do that.

Before you pass judgment on someone else, think about your secret life. Stop and get honest with God and then maybe try praying for them instead of condemning them.

Have a great day!