Rick was looking forward to his weekly conversation with Jesus. Last week he had failed to convince Jesus of his viewpoint, but Jesus never seemed to mind Rick’s vigorous defense of his opinions. Instead, the Lord claimed he rather enjoyed the dialogue.
Rick: Jesus, you are always telling me how important it is to be consistent in our beliefs and thinking.
Jesus: Yes, truth may be paradoxical, but it is not self-contradictory.
Rick: So . . . last week you told me to concentrate only on the “log” in my own eye . . . but when you told me to do that, are you not, in fact, addressing the speck in my eye?
Rick was very pleased with this argument. Jesus had not followed his own dictate . . . a major mistake of inconsistency!
Jesus: Well . . . let me ask you, why are we talking, Rick?
Rick: What do you mean? We do this every week . . . we have coffee and discuss things. We’ve been doing this ever since I started having questions about what is true, I guess, and how I ought to live.
Jesus: Yes, you asked me to explain to you the way to live a spiritual life. At your request we have been having these conversations. Look back at what my disciples wrote about my ministry. I responded to those who came to me asking questions or I would speak to crowds . . . but again, they came to listen. I did not go up to anyone uninvited and try to straighten them out on how to live or concerning what is true. I never told anyone they were “going to hell” . . . which seems to be what many of my followers are prone to do.
Rick: So . . . because I asked for your help, that makes it different?
Jesus: Exactly! When others ask for help it is not finding specks in their eyes to actually help them, but the way you truly help them is by telling them about your own log, or at least what you’ve learned from wrestling with your own log. Last week you probably thought that I was telling you to have a personal faith that you keep to yourself, when I said the only wrong in the world you need to be concerned about is your own log. Actually, I am telling you to have a public faith that is confessional about your own experience of weakness rather than condemnatory about others. I am telling you how to speak about what is wrong in the world . . . by talking about what is wrong in you.
Rick: If the way I am to speak to others is from understanding the log in my eye, how then did you teach others? How can you teach me about my log? Am I not supposed to imitate you? How can speaking about my own log imitate you?
Another contradiction! Jesus was being very inconsistent!
Jesus: Do you think I didn’t have a log in my eye?
Rick: How could you? You never sinned! You are the Son of God, for crying out loud!
Jesus: Rick, I have the biggest log of anyone! Your log is not just your sins, but all the thoughts, impulses, and desires that are part of temptation and your spiritual wrestling against sin. The commission of a sin is merely the last act of surrender to a long series of struggles. Most Christians do not really believe I was ever tempted! (Hebrews 4:15). Do you not realize that I had evil thoughts, feelings of jealousy, covetous desires, lust, greed, pride, and everything else?
Rick: Won’t that be wrong and sinful to have those thoughts and feelings?
Jesus: No. To entertain and give in to such thoughts and feelings, to let them dominate, and to abandon our Father’s love in order to indulge those temptations, that is when temptation turns into sin. When I speak about lust, I know what I am talking about! I know what it is like to have a lustful desire. In fact, my log, my struggle with my own susceptibility to sin, was greater than anyone else’s who has ever lived because Satan tempted me more severely . . . and every resistance to sin can make the temptation more persistent.
Rick: Wow . . . I never thought of you having a log in your eye, and actually knowing and having experienced what I struggle with daily.
Jesus: The reason I want you to focus on your own log and not the specks in the eyes of others is that from knowing your own struggle with temptation and against sin, you can help others when they seek your guidance. Without awareness of your own struggle you will be judgmental, harsh, and arrogant. You will not know how to direct others to depend on God unless you know how deeply you need to rely on our Father. You won’t be humble, gentle, patient, and forebear with others in love (Ephesians 4:2) unless you have wrestled mightily with your own log.
Rick: So how do I learn about what is in my eye?
Jesus: Let’s talk about that next week.
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