Anything to Declare?
- Jul 27, 2024
- 5 min read
Prayer –
"Most Gracious God, open us up to a sense of Your presence with us now, for we believe that You are always here, always present, that there is no place where You are not.
And yet so often we go through life unaware of You; so help us now to become aware of Your presence with us, and within us, and in the space between. For we come to meet with You."
Church of Scotland
Have you been abroad lately? Now, for some reason when I walk through the 'Nothing to Declare' door there’s a tendency to feel guilty!
I know I shouldn’t feel this way because I’ve nothing to declare, but if only people knew the true me! Another thing, we are being watched - the customs officers are probably thinking ‘he has no idea how to walk through customs.’
What are you supposed to do? Smile at the officer/camera or say good morning? Or, is that just asking for trouble?
On reflection, this is how we do life or church! In fact, the baggage we took away with us last week, or the week before, is the same baggage we bring back through the 'nothing to declare' door this week. No one will detect anything. Yet you know and I do, there’s so much to be declared. All the time God is watching and I’m sure He’s thinking, "if only you knew what would bring you peace!"
In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus has explained that true righteousness is a matter of the heart. He’s told us our kingdom living must be sincere, not a pretend performance.
Here in chapter 7, Jesus' word is for us to live with a new vision of others, which means we have a TRUE vision of ourselves.
Tim Keller puts it this way, “A Christian Spirit-filled community is an alternative society that models distinctive ways to do everything in life.”
The Problem
“Do not judge, or you too will be judged” (Matt 7:1). The words are simple and clear and unambiguous.
In the Message Bible it says, “Don’t pick on people, jump on their failures, criticise their faults—unless, of course, you want the same treatment.” And verse 2: “That critical spirit has a way of boomeranging.”
Do you have anything to declare?
Maybe you prefer to just declare things against others. Jesus knows there’s so much to declare! But you’re hidden behind a screen of judgement of others.
A man worked in a greengrocers shop. A lady came in asking for half a lettuce. He replied, "Are you serious? God grows full lettuces and that is how we sell them.” The lady said, “You mean that after all the years I’ve shopped here, you will not sell me half-a-lettuce?” The man said, “I’ll ask the manager.” He said to the manager, “You won’t believe this, but there’s a silly woman, that wants to buy half-a- lettuce, how stupid is that.” Just as he said it, he noticed that the lady was standing behind him. Quickly he added, “And this nice lady was wondering if she could buy the other half.”
Henri Nouwen wrote this: "From the beginning of my life, two voices have been speaking to me: one saying, Henri, be sure you make it on your own… and another voice saying, Henri, whatever you are going to do, even if you don’t do anything very interesting in the eyes of the world, be sure you stay close to the heart of Jesus; be sure you stay close to the love of God."
We must bring our own life into alignment with God’s standard. It’s not our job to reshape others to our thinking.
So, what is the main problem? Verses 3-5 tell us it’s profound blindness! This blindness is seen in the plank-filled eye specialist.
Jesus the carpenter gives us a visual illustration. Jesus is undoubtedly remembering the years that He spent in the joiners shop before He began His ministry.
He says, “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?” Speck might be sawdust that the wind blows into the eye. But the "plank" conveys the idea of a floor joist stuck in one's own eye. We usually justify and minimise the planks in our own life and magnify the specks in others.
To make matters worse, we think we are great, perhaps more spiritual and can help others spiritually."How can you say to your brother, 'Let me take the speck out of your eye,' and all the time have a plank is in your own eye?" There is a bit of humour in thinking that someone with a log stuck in their eye can see clearly enough to do the delicate work of helping remove a speck of dust from someone else's. How often we fix our attention on the specks in others, but haven’t first noticed the huge log in our own.
Kent Hughes said, “We find it so easy to turn a microscope on another person’s sin, but we look at ours through the wrong end of a telescope. We easily spot a speck of phoniness in another, because we have a logjam of it in our own lives. Wrath toward the speck in someone else’s life may come from the suppressed guilt over the same massive sin in our own lives.”
The Priority - deal with yourself FIRST!
Notice Jesus said we are to be a help to one another in dealing with sin in each other's lives.
But "First" (set as your priority), "take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother's eye."
The problem with planks and specks is our sense of proportion. How is it, we have the nerve to try to straighten someone else out before we’ve done business with God about our own sin? “First” we must "notice the plank" that is in our own eye.
Anything to declare?
It’s only when we prayerfully, and humbly open ourselves to God and ask the Holy Spirit to search us, that we’ll see "the plank" that’s blinding our sight.
Stop -Allow God to speak to you.
Sinclair Ferguson says, "To have strong feelings about the sins of others that are not matched by a ruthless dealing with our own sins is hypocrisy."
When was the last time we asked the Lord to reveal our sin so that we might confess and repent of it?
Finally - Receive God’s Forgiveness
In Ephesians 5, there’s a description of how Christ deals with ‘planks and specks’ - “Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word, and to present her to himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless.”
Only God’s way works. Notice that the sin is portrayed as something that can be removed, it can be cleansed. We can be made acceptable to God again. Let’s pray that the Holy Spirit will show us our weaknesses, faults, mistakes, wrong attitudes, those foolish words, pride, anger, bitterness, lack of mercy, lack of love, lack of compassion. Then ask Him to carry out delicate eye surgery - the eye is very sensitive so it’ll take a delicate touch to remove the plank/speck from the eye.
Jesus wants you to clear your own heart of all obscuring sin so that you can help others to do the same.
Paul wrote to the church in Rome: “If, when we were at our worst, we were put on friendly terms with God by the sacrificial death of his Son, now that we're at our best, just think of how our lives will expand and deepen by means of his resurrection life! ” (Rom 5:8ff).
So, anything to declare?
I am conscious thst I do not stop to think those areas that are hidden and don’t recognise areas of my life that are sinful. I am also conscious that when I read God’s word and listen to sermons my mind can wander and begins to feel I do what I am listening to. But in those moments it’s as if my conscience is telling me to be careful of becoming self dependent. There are times my prayer life is not good, and I overlook to bring my sins before Jesus, then comes the conscious prompt, to do so, as an afterthought it feels uncomfortable. I am also aware there are things that are so hidden I ask Go…