STUDY GUIDE

Introduction

Tic Tacs and two-year-olds don’t mix. I’m not sure how it happened, but when our oldest child was very young, she got ahold of a box of Tic Tacs and rather than popping one into her mouth, she decided a better receptacle of the tiny white mint was her right nostril. It didn’t take long for the peppermint oil of the candy to signal to her brain that she had made a terrible decision and came running to me. I tried to press on the top side of the lodged candy, but it wouldn’t budge. There was only one option. I strapped on a headlamp, found needle-point tweezers, and explained the procedure. She had to stay still, and I had to be careful, but we removed the Tic Tac, hugged, and learned not to put things in noses.

Inserting tweezers in her nose was terrifying for her and uncomfortable for me, but it had to be done. She had to let me make her uncomfortable. And I had to risk causing some pain that I didn’t want to cause. That’s the responsibility of being a Father.

Raise the Need, State the Destination, Give Signposts:

In our Scripture passage, Jesus calls his followers to guide and teach others. We have a responsibility to help one another recognize our faults. But so often, when we try to help others see their faults, we harm more than we help. Why is that? Jesus says it’s because to some degree every single Christian who tries to help another person is themselves a hypocrite. We’re all hypocrites. There it is. The uncomfortable truth. According to Jesus, we’re hypocrites who are called to help others. So, how can we have confidence to help others, yet possess a gentleness that doesn’t do more harm than good?

Our text is Luke 6:39-42. We can help others follow Jesus, but first we have to see three things:

1. The Reality of Hypocrisy
2. The Root of Hypocrisy
3. The Remedy of Hypocrisy

The Text

³⁹ He also told them a parable: “Can a blind man lead a blind man? Will they not both fall into a pit? ⁴⁰ A disciple is not above his teacher, but everyone when he is fully trained will be like his teacher. ⁴¹ Why do you see the speck that is in your brother’s eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye? ⁴² How can you say to your brother, ‘Brother, let me take out the speck that is in your eye,’ when you yourself do not see the log that is in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take out the speck that is in your brother’s eye.

The grass withers, the flower fades, but the Word of our God stands forever.

1. The Reality of Hypocrisy

You saw there in verse 42, Jesus says, “You hypocrite.” Now, we have to do a little work to understand what Jesus means by calling us hypocrites. He isn’t using this word the way we commonly use it. Today, when we call someone a hypocrite, we think of someone who is intentionally deceptive. The term today carries a negative connotation implying that hypocrites are intentionally dishonest. But in the first century, hypocrite had a much broader meaning. In fact, the English word hypocrite is the same word as the Greek, hypokritēs; you can hear it in there.

It’s a word that, in the first century meant “play actor.” If you went to the theater in the first century to see a play, you’d watch the “hypocrites” on stage. You say, “Ah yes, now it makes sense because all actors are hypocrites.” No. Actually, the ancient actors wore masks relate to the part. If the part was joyful, they wore a smiling mask that would cover up the face of the actor. What they were presenting on the outside was the opposite of what they truly were.

The best illustration of this is from the movie, The Greatest Story Ever Told. It’s about the life and crucifixion of Jesus Christ, and there at the foot of the cross is a Roman Centurian played by John Wayne. He has on the crested helmet, the Roman armor, and then he says, “Truly this man was the Son of God.” He’s dressed like a centurion, but he sounds like a cowboy.

Now listen, a great actor can convince an audience of the exact opposite of what they truly are, and that’s fine on a stage. But in discipling relationships, Jesus says, it’s devastating. We’re trying to help others do something that isn’t true of us, and the practical implication is this: all of us, on our own, we shade the truth about ourselves. We color and even hide our sins. It’s the nature of the human heart to divert attention away from itself, not draw attention to what’s down in its depths. We don’t want the light turned on our defects and faults.

My wife, a photographer for 15 years, has this incredible software called Photoshop. She’ll upload a photo into the application and make “tweaks.” She can remove dark circles from the eyes, tighten skin around the neck, and remove unsightly hairs from the ears. If you’re willing to pay for it, you can even say goodbye to those pesky love handles. I’ll watch her do all this and say, “That’s not how that person looks.” And she says, “No, but it is how they want to look.”

What’s going on? Hypocrisy. Jesus says the human heart wants to be photoshopped. The reality is that we’re all hypocrites. We’re all play actors, and any time we try to help someone else admit their faults, we’re like a blind person leading a blind person.

2. The Root of Hypocrisy

The majority of the passage revolves around this rather funny story: a person who has a log in their eye tries to pull the speck out of someone else’s eye. It’s a ridiculous story but let me show you how ridiculous it is. First, when Jesus says we have a log in our eye, the word literally means, a load bearing beam. So, this isn’t a 2×4.

When you go into the great hall of an ancient castle and look up, the first thing you see are the massive, exposed beams holding up the roof. You can’t not see them. This is how big Jesus says the beam in our eye is. It’s not a board of wood. It’s a telephone pole. And if that’s not ridiculous enough, notice what Jesus says:

How can you say to your brother, ‘Brother, let me take out the speck that is in your eye,’ when you yourself do not see the log that is in your own eye?

 He does not say, “You know, your problem is that you’ve got a big mess, and you refuse to admit it.” He says, “You’ve got a big mess, and you don’t even know it.” He says, “You see the speck in your brother’s eye, but the telephone pole in your own eye isn’t even on your radar.”

All of us have sins in our life that are so obvious to everyone else, and we don’t even see them. This is the root of our hypocrisy, the root of our play acting: at the center of our hearts is a giant mess of sin and we don’t even see it. We actively try to avoid seeing it. We don’t want to see it. Let me prove to you to that you don’t want to see it. You never just walk up to a mirror. You approach it from a certain angle, don’t you? Why? Because you want to see yourself in in a certain way.

In his book God in the Dock, C.S. Lewis put it this way:

There are two respects in which God’s view must be very different from ours. In the first place, he sees (like you) how all the people in your home or your job are in various degrees awkward or difficult; but when he looks into that home or office he sees one more person of the same kind—the one you never do see. I mean, of course, yourself. That is the next great step in wisdom—to realize that you also are just that sort of person. You also have a fatal flaw in your character. All the hope and plans of others have again and again shipwrecked on your character just as your hopes and plans have shipwrecked on theirs. It is no good passing this over with some vague, general admission such as “Of course, I know I have my faults.” It is important to realize that there is some really fatal flaw in you: something which gives the others just that same feeling of despair which their flaws give you.

Lewis goes on to say that fatal flaw is like having bad breath. Everyone smells it except the person who has it. And you say, “But why haven’t they tried to tell me? Believe me, they have tried to tell you over and over again, and you just couldn’t “take it.”

Jesus says we have a fatal flaw, and we don’t even see it. And even the faults we do know we don’t know fully. We might say, “I admit I lost my temper yesterday,” but our families know we’re always losing our temper; that we’re a bad-tempered person. Or you say, “Look, I tried to micromanage that situation,” but your coworkers see you’re a manipulator, you’re a controlling person. Why do we find faults so easily in others? It’s not that our vision is so clear, but that we’re diverting attention away from ourselves.

The message of Jesus Christ is not that we’re good people down in our depths who have a few sins sticking to us. Our problem is not that we’re good people who do bad things. It’s not a matter of God “sending” us to hell. In each of us there is something growing that will become hell itself if it’s not dealt with. We all have a beam in our eye that we can’t even see.

This is why our attempts to correct others so often go wrong. None of us can really see the beam in our own eye. We confront others assuming that we know far more than we do, that our vision is clearer than it is. Rather than proceeding with caution, we go in guns blazing. Or, if you’re like me, you don’t correct as much as you should. You withhold correction when you ought to offer it, not out of a sense of love, but out of a sense of self-preservation.

So, here we are: the blind leading the blind. We all have beams in our eyes that we can’t see. And Jesus says we have to help one another follow him.

3. The Remedy of Hypocrisy

What’s the remedy for this kind of hypocrisy? In verse 40, Jesus says that every disciple has to be trained by his teacher. And if we extend the metaphor, here’s what he’s saying, the only way a blind person gets anywhere is if someone with sight leads them. And, if we all have beams in our eyes, and none of us can see them, how can any of us help anyone else? We all need someone who has no beams and no specks in their eye to come and remove ours. Friend, Jesus Christ, because he is the divine Son of God, has no beams in his eyes. He has no specks clouding his vision. He has perfect eyesight. He’s able to look at us and see who we truly are. In John 2:24, we’re told that Jesus Christ did not trust himself to anyone for he knew what was in man. Listen, others have a sense of our fatal flaw, but Jesus Christ and only Jesus Christ has an accurate picture of what’s wrong with us. He sees behind all the diversions and through all the photoshopping of your heart.

When Jesus Christ looked into our eyes, what did he see? He saw the beam that we refused to admit, and he was nailed to it. The fatal flaw, your sin; he took it into himself and bore the wrath from heaven it deserved. That which you are constantly hiding, continually fearful of, it was exposed in broad daylight at the cross. Friend, before you do anything else, believe in the gospel, the good news that you will never be nailed to that beam, because Christ was in your place.

And, if you have believed in the gospel, do you begin to see how it trains us to help one another? Here’s what I mean. The only way you’ll allow someone to take a speck out of your eye is if you trust their vision and if you know that even the discomfort and pain of removing the speck is for your ultimate joy. Put another way, the only way you can get a speck out of someone’s eye is if you possess both confidence and gentleness. And that’s exactly what the gospel produces in those who believe it.

If you have to correct a brother or sister, the gospel makes you incredibly gentle. Why? Because it tells you that you have a beam. You’re a sinner. In and of yourself, you have no right to correct anyone, because you yourself were condemned. And that makes you gentle with others who are blind to their own faults.

At the same time, the gospel tells you, “Jesus Christ is unconditionally committed to you. Your sins are forgiven, and therefore no one can condemn you.” It gives you the assurance and confidence you need to correct others even when its painful; even if they reject you.

As one pastor said, “Love without truth is sentimentality; it supports and affirms us in denial about our flaws. Truth without love is harshness; it gives us information but in such a way that we cannot really hear it. The gospel, however, is marked by both radical truthfulness about who we are and yet radical, unconditional commitment to us.”

So, how do you help guide another person? How do you teach them without being a hypocrite?

1. First, and this will sound funny: stop thinking about other’s faults unless you are required to do it. Unless you are a parent or a teacher, most of the time we’re best to overlook the faults of others and focusing our energy on our own. As Lewis said, “Of all the awkward people in your house or job, there is only one you can improve very much.”

2. Admit Your Hypocrisy: Occasionally there are faults that have to be addressed between church members, families and friends. But before we pull out the tweezers and poke them in the eyes, we ought to reflect on our own sinfulness and the limitations of our knowledge. Approach correction with humility by asking more questions than making assertions. And if you can’t, then you aren’t ready to correct. You’re still the blind leading the blind.

3. Rely on the Gospel for Confidence: Knowing your identity is secure in Christ gives you the confidence to speak with boldness. Your aim is restoration, not condemnation. Just as God forgave you, you are to go in eager to forgive.