7-7-2022
This past Monday we celebrated the independence of the United States. I hope your celebration was meaningful and fun. Related to that, in the Old Testament book of Psalms we read this:
“Blessed is the nation whose God is the LORD…” (Psalm 33:12a, NIV)
God tells us that any nation, anywhere, whose God is the Lord will be blessed. In other words, when a nation puts God first, God’s blessings will follow. We’ve experienced that throughout the history of the United States of America. This isn’t an article about whether the United States is a Christian nation or not, but an article about how to continue the greatness and blessings we’ve experienced.
I think we can all agree that there is a lot of division right now and our nation desperately needs a recovery. It’s interesting that Jesus actually gave us a process whereby we can begin to bring unity instead of division. If we can get a grasp on what God has to say about this, we can be instrumental in bringing recovery to our nation. Where all of this begins to intersect with the Scripture is this simple principle you’ve heard a thousand times called reaping what we have sown. And here’s what happens in the principle of sowing and reaping: When you begin to reap what you have sown you start looking someone or something to blame. But mature people don’t look for someone to blame; mature people look for something to do. Here’s what Jesus had to say about this:
Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in someone else’s eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye? How can you say, ‘Let me take that speck out of your eye,’ when all the time there is a plank in your own eye? You hypocrite…. (Matthew 7:3-5a, NIV)
Mind you, this is Jesus speaking. He says, “You” – and I’m part of you – He says, “you hypocrite”. And no one wants to be a hypocrite because we don’t even like hypocrites. By the way, do you know what a hypocrite is? A hypocrite is someone who expects something of someone else that they are unwilling to do themselves. Jesus says, “If you’re focused on the speck in somebody else’s eye and it’s really bothering you, chances are whatever you don’t like in them, there is some of that in you.” He goes on:
You hypocrite. First, take the plank out of your own eye. (Matthew 7:5b, NIV)
Here’s what He’s saying, in case you miss it. When something about you bothers me, I need to take a long, hard look at me before bothering you. That could change everything. And I know what you’re thinking. If you’re a Republican you think, “Democrats, would you just look in the mirror?” Democrats are going, “Yeah, Republicans, if you could just see you the way I see you.” And Jesus is going, “That’s a great idea. Let’s all turn off our televisions and let’s all go home and look in the mirror. Let’s all go home and say, ‘Hmm, that stuff that drives me crazy about them, is there any of that in me?'” And, of course, you don’t think there is, but this next part is so brilliant. Here’s what Jesus says:
You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly. (Matthew 7:5, NIV)
This is a promise; this is a promise to you, your family, your company, your network of friends, our community and our nation. If you take the plank out of your own eye, here is the promise: Then you will see clearly.
This isn’t a Republican problem or a Democrat problem. This is a, “We the people” problem, and it’s going to take, “We the people” to get back on track. Can you imagine what would happen in our country if we began to take the planks out of our own eyes so that we can have productive conversations? We could get on the road to recovery. There would be much more unity and far less disunity. There would be so many positive things that would happen. Because this is an “us and we” thing, not a “they” thing.
So let’s do this. Jesus said, “If you’ll look in the mirror and if you will address the plank in your eye, I promise you will be able to see clearly to help the other people around you see clearly.” And if more and more people see clearly, we will make progress in our communities and progress in our nation once again. But it doesn’t begin with they, it begins with me and it begins with we. And with God’s help, we can get back on track to being a nation whose God is the Lord.