What Defect?
Theme of the Week: Dealing with My Defects
Erwin Lutzer
Monday, April 26, 2004
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Key Bible Verse: "And why worry about a speck in your friend's eye when you have a log in your own?" (Luke 6:41). Bonus Reading:Luke 6:39–42
Some people live in two worlds. In world A, they might be Sunday school teachers, elders, and trusted Christian leaders. But in world B, they might be committing adultery, nursing an addiction, or being just plain self-driven. Such a man believes his plank so well hidden that no one can see it. He sometimes finds fault with others because he's trying to prove that he can "see" the sawdust despite the plank in his own eye. He hopes his own reputation will be enhanced by comparison.
An engaged couple came to me because the man was unable to forgive his girlfriend, who'd confessed to a series of sexual relationships years before her conversion. Despite the engagement, he didn't think he could marry someone who wasn't pure, without memories of other intimacies. So I asked him whether he was a sexual "virgin." No, turns out that he'd also had a series of sexual relationships in college. He admitted, when pressed, that this double standard made no sense. But he said he simply couldn't forgive her. Yes, he'd sinned, but his sin was different. He wouldn't allow his past sin to humble him. His plank had grown so large that he couldn't "see" it!
—Erwin Lutzer in Who Are You to Judge?
My Response: I'll ask God to reveal how sin has distorted my perception of myself.
Thought to Apply: Their own defect, invisible to them, seen in another, they at once condemn.
—William Cowper (English poet)
Adapted from Who Are You to Judge (Moody, 2002) by permission.
Copyright © 2004 Christianity Today. Click
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Lord, I keep facing defeat in one area of my life. Please empower me to win over it.
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