Judge not, lest you be Judged

 "Do not judge, or you too will be judged. For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you. Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother's eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye? How can you say to your brother, 'Let me take the speck out of your eye,' when all the time there is a plank in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother's eye. Do not give dogs what is sacred; do not throw your pearls to pigs. if you do , they may trample them under their feet, and turn and tear you to pieces."

Matthew 7:1-6

    We have probably all heard the phrase to "judge not, lest you be judged," but how does it apply to our lives? WHat is wrong with trying to remove a speck of dust from our fellow man? Shouldn't we look for ways to help each other, and not leave things as they are? To some degree, yes. But we can't do that when the troubles of our own life get in the way. When we fail to deal with the plank in our own eye- an resolved sin, or past hurt that we have not given to God to heal- by trying to help out our brother, we may cause more harm than good. If you have ever tried to move around while carrying a big, heavy object, you know that if you don't have a good grip on all sides, or a friend to help you, the circle of damage around you can be tremendous. Bumping into walls, or knocking something off a nearby shelf or banging someone in the head accidentally as they try to get around. When we go through life not dealing with our own problems, it becomes like that heavy object. You yourself may have gotten use to it, the your still affecting the people around you. What I believe Jesus is trying to convey to the crowd here is that unresolved issues can lead to a multiple of damages and pain to the people around us. We need to bring those things to the Father, the only one who is truly able to remove them, so that in turn, we can see things clearly to then go and help our brother with their situation. I am not implying that before we can help anyone, we ourselves must first be perfect. Instead, we need to be aware of how our faults and issues affect the space we occupy, and acknowledge that it is only though Jesus that we can deal with those things. 

    When we cultivate a judging spirit, we tend to not see people as works in progress, but people who should just try and do better. When a coworker messes up around us, or person does something that you would never publicly do, we begin to build up this wall of perfection towards our self, rather than a bridge of compassion to the individual. In our heads, they can do no right, and we can do no wrong. But as Christ-followers, we are called to love our neighbor, not loathe the things they do. They might not even be able to feel the speck in their own eye, but they typically will not even accept our help if they see us coming with a 2-by-4 protruding out of our face. This is not to we have to be spotless before trying to clean someone else up, but we need to be willing to trust God to remove the things in our way so that we can see the world as he does. 

Adam Semple- A Young Man on a Journey through the Sermon on the Mount.