GLEANINGS from the Daily Office – Judge For Yourself

GLEANINGS (from the Daily Office) – Judge for Yourself – Year One, Proper 21, Tuesday, September 29, 2015, Matthew 7:1-12

“First take the log out of your own eye.”

Our beliefs include judgment. The Word sets the target and we miss the mark (hamartia). There is judgment everywhere. It is the Truth in “full of grace and truth.” Broad is the path that leads to destruction and most of us spend some time on it.

If it includes judgment, it includes judges. We are judges. Get on with it. But begin with yourself. Be discerning. Know the difference in Broad Street and the narrow way. But when you are judging who is on Broad Street, let the examination begin with you.

So easily the log in our eye obscures our vision of others. When our lives are disordered we deflect and heap our harshest judgment upon others when in fact that judgment should largely be reserved for the self. God knows every heart. I only know one. Judgment begins with me.

–Frodo: “I wish none of this had happened.” Gandalf: “So do all who live to see such times, but that is not for them to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given to us.”–