On Line Bible Study - For the Week June 7-13, 2010

Lesson 443

Luke 6: ³⁹He also told them this parable: "Can a blind man lead a blind man? Will they not both fall into a pit? ⁴⁰A student is not above his teacher, but everyone who is fully trained will be like his teacher. ⁴¹"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? ⁴²How can you say to your brother, 'Brother, let me take the speck out of your eye,' when you yourself fail to see the plank in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother's eye.

In his commentary on the Gospel of Luke, Darrel Bock points out three things with regard to the concluding verses of the Sermon on the Plain.

First, make sure the person you are following knows where they are going. One of the things I tell people who are in therapy is this: The counseling should make a difference! Some issues take months, even years to resolve. But if you have been going to a counselor for months and feel as if you are getting nowhere, you probably are! I have had teachers in my life who have pushed me. Their guidance was not always comfortable; but I could tell when it was making a positive difference.

Second, we become like our teachers. This is another reason to choose them carefully. But another point to consider is the fact that we need a teacher. If Jesus is our teacher, we need to be careful not to go outside the boundaries of his teachings. It may also be that Jesus is imparting his authority to the disciples. We don't become greater than him; but we must become like him in our thinking and our acting.

Third, honest self evaluation is a critical ingredient if there is going to be spiritual growth. It is a constant struggle, isn't it, to stop judging other people. It is easy for our talk to become gossip, and our gossip to become judgmental. We all know how uncomfortable it is to have a speck of dust in our eye. We will blink, run, tear up, splash water - anything to relieve the discomfort of having that speck in our eye. The notion that, from a spiritual perspective we have a log in our eye simply heightens the sense of our own spiritually compromised state! How dare we judge another.

The high standards the preceding sermon holds out for us must be accompanied by our willingness to let Jesus be the teacher, no matter how challenging his ways are. And if he is going to teach us, we better get ready for some serious soul-searching. All of this will be in the name of transforming us from doubter to believer, from spectator to full participant in the on-going redemptive work of God.