Be the Change
"How 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."
Luke 6:42
This single teaching of Jesus, stated in a few sentences and only one verse in the bible, holds the solution to so many of the problems facing our world today. Context? Jesus is talking to a group of people steeped in a culture of 'judgyness'; everything is referred back to the Law and a persons adherence to it. Pharisees are the cream of the crop when it comes to being well-behaved, relying on religious practise for their self-righteousness. The Law which was originally intended by God to help govern people, teach them about His ways and ultimately lead people to closer relationship with Him, had instead been misused and abused by the religious leaders of the day. Instead of governing people and helping them grow, they were ruling over them in an oppressive regime. People were expected to complete their penance to the religious state, bound by religious rule keeping, and excluded and marginalised from the community if they failed to meet standards.
Jesus speaks in to this culture, stating that rather than judging and examining each other, we should instead focus on our own lives and personal responsibility. Self-examination should be our priority, rather than trying to fix other people. Stop trying to deal with the 'issues' you see in someone else, before you've a had a good, long, hard look in the mirror.
Our culture today is a very confusing one. It seems that people are both obsessed with freedom of speech and belief, and at the same time quick to cancel out opinions that do not line up with their own view points. Truth has become relative and subjective, rather than timeless and objective. 'Your truth is different to my truth', a common philosophy today, is of course in opposition to the route meaning of truth, being 'that which is in accordance with fact or reality.' Our culture has become very good at pointing out the flaws in other peoples lives, beliefs and practices, whilst getting very offended when the finger is pointed back at 'number 1'. Even the move towards a greater awareness of issues like climate change, inequality and a host of other social and global challenges is rife with blame and accusation.
The message Jesus is declaring in this single verse is 'look at your own life FIRST'. Our greatest responsibility and most powerful act of change in the world is to examine our own lives - beliefs, motivations, actions, world views, practices - and on an ongoing basis seek to improve who we are and the impact we are then having on the world around us. Not thinking on a global scale most of the time, but rather thinking 'how am I affecting my family? My work place? My neighbours?' If we all endeavoured to take personal responsibility for every area of our lives, not being passive about our own failings but intentionally working to improve, we would see radical change around us. Of course, get involved in social action groups, join causes, stand for whatever it is that is on your heart, but make sure that your priority is to first and foremost self-examine.
As Jesus teaches us in this verse, our starting place is our own hearts. Allowing God to examine us, as David says in psalm 139:23-24 'Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is ANY offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting." This is our starting point, and our ongoing journey. Always, we look to our own responsibility, rather than palming that responsibility off on those around us or the wider society we live in. Praise God, salvation begins with a miraculous change to our core being, as God gives us a new heart and a new spirit - His heart and spirit. But it is our responsibility to everyday apply His truth to our lives, understanding that our greatest act of change in the world is to first look at how WE can change.