SEPTEMBER 17
MATTHEW 7:4_and behold, a beam is in thine own eye?
Let’s begin to dig to the core of this whole judgment thing.
In the apostle Paul’s view, he was doing God’s work when he persecuted and condemned Christians. He considered Jesus and His teachings to be far too radical for the Jewish religion. After all, they had the laws God gave Moses. To turn some of the laws upside down as Jesus did had to be from the devil.
Jesus proclaiming He and the Father as one was blasphemy – to Paul. Merriam-Webster defines blasphemy as, the act of insulting or showing contempt or lack of reverence for God. Paul, a Pharisee, believed Jesus-followers should be annihilated.
The point is – Paul, especially as a Pharisee, should have recognized who Jesus was. It is understandable that Paul could have seen Jesus’ radical teachings as destructive to the Law – thus the mote. But it was Paul’s own beam which blinded him to belief in the physical presence of the Messiah.
Paul was a fixer. Taking out Jesus-followers was his way to fix. Paul was also a disciplinarian, and his form of discipline on Jesus-followers was both brutal and deadly.
But God saw something in Paul which people did not see …
PRAYER
Messiah, Please don’t let my beams blind me to truth. In the powerful name of Jesus, Amen.
Christ wants me to have 20/20 vision—In the truth!
The Works of Her Hands 