You’re probably familiar with the adverts that show the man putting hot sauce on a cheesecake, or the woman putting shaving cream on her toothbrush, then the voiceover says in a slightly ridiculing tone, should have gone to spec savers’. These are a bit funny, and a bit cheesy, but they make their point clear; it’s important to be able to see reality for what it is, we need clear vision.
Being able to see clearly is the lifelong journey of Christian spiritual formation. It is, in fact, the life long journey of anthropological maturity; i.e. growing up!
How you see yourself and how you see others is in constant evolution, or de-evolution. Either the picture is becoming clearer and more aligned with reality, or it is becoming blurrier, more distorted and disconnected from reality. Very rarely is our vision stagnant.
The Apostle James writes about the connection between hearing what God says and doing what God says as the demonstration of true faith, and he likens those who fail to make that connection to seeing oneself in a mirror and then forgetting what you look like, you forget who you are;
“For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks intently at his natural face in a mirror. For he looks at himself and goes away and at once forgets what he was like. But the one who looks into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and perseveres, being no hearer who forgets but a doer who acts, he will be blessed in his doing.”
James 1:23-25
Spiritual formation, or the process of being formed into the image of Christ, into maturity, is never an arrival issue, but a continuous process of death and new life. We are forever putting off the old nature, putting it to death, and then putting on the new; putting on Life.
James argues that this life of faith is made visible, not in mere words, but in our actions; the way we live. Those who know the scriptures but then live contrary to them are forgetful hearers, or, forgetful seers, having seen the image of Christ in scripture that they are to become, they walk away forgetful and live at a lower place, often called ‘the flesh’ – it’s our default, selfish animalistic nature. What this shows, among many things, is that we need to constantly live engaged with the scriptures as the true north for who we are to become, how we ought to speak, think, act and live out our faith. None of us ever arrive, we’re all a work in progress, but it is this very progress that depends on looking deeply in the mirror of scripture, and adjusting our lives to better fit what is staring back at us; namely, Christ.
To this end, of becoming like Jesus, we must commit ourselves to being loggers.
A life of logging
Logging; the act of cutting down large trees and hauling them away.
When Jesus taught us his Way of Life, he used many images, analogies, parables, and metaphors, painting pictures with his words to help his listeners grasp deep and profound truths. At a surface reading of many of his lessons, it is easy to be like a smooth flat stone and just skim the surface before bouncing on to the next lesson, the next chapter. But if we, to keep with the water metaphor, approach each lesson more like a large heavy boulder, we will not skim but sink deep into the powerful truths Jesus offers that are quite literally life changing. Removing logs is one well known image Jesus used, but how many of us have thought about it deeply? Have you ever considered it the key to continuous growth and maturity?
As we consider Jesus lessons more deeply, we begin to stare into the mirror of his word instead of giving it a casual glance. So let’s dive deep right now into one of Jesus teachings that for many, even unbelievers, is well known, but often skimmed over quickly. We find it in part of Jesus sermon on the mount, in Matthew 7:1-6
““Judge not, that you be not judged. For with the judgment you pronounce you will be judged, and with the measure you use it will be measured to you. 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? Or how can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when there is the log in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother’s eye. “Do not give dogs what is holy, and do not throw your pearls before pigs, lest they trample them underfoot and turn to attack you.”
Loving Judgement & Clear Sight
The first warning Jesus gives here, is about the nature of judgement.
How we judge others is how we will be judged.
This is not saying that when we stand before the throne of God on judgement day that he will judge us the way we judged others, for that would leave the whole of humanity lost, and such an interpretation fails to consider the blood of Christ in redeeming us. So no, it’s not that. Jesus has been talking a lot throughout his sermon on the mount about our relationships with each other. The issues of adultery, hatred, murder, turning the other cheek, and so on, are all lessons on how to conduct ourselves towards one another. So too is this lesson and its consequence.
If you are known for being judgemental, you will no doubt be judged harshly by others on a regular basis. To the measure you use, it shall be used against you. If you hold people to a high standard and offer little grace when people fail, you should expect the same in return. However, if you make a practice of withholding judgement, offering mercy, being forgiving, kind, tender hearted and generous, you can expect that this will be, typically, how you are treated by others. In simple terms, what you sow, you reap. This is the context for the rest of this section of Jesus teaching.
Jesus wants his love in us to be the overriding feature of how we treat people, and any judgement we bring against people must be in the form of love and kindness, like pleading with people to stop destructive behaviours because you care about them, as opposed to condemning them and offering no help. This is what the Pharisees were guilty of, tying up heavy burdens but not lifting a finger to help the people carry them (Matthew 23:4).
There is a type of ‘judgement’ that is loving, but our ability to provide loving judgement requires we have clear sight; and this is where the logging concept comes into play, for, as Jesus says, how can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when there is the log in your own eye?
Jesus does not say, do not judge. He says, judge not, that you may not be judged. It is the kind of judgement and the way we deliver it that Jesus is concerned with. It’s as if Jesus is commending us to judge in a way that loves people, but do not judge in a way that is only going to stir up judgement upon yourself. This is why after he talks about removing our logs first, he says not only will we see clearly, but we’ll be able to help our brothers remove the spec in their eye; we’ll judge with love that helps and not hurts.
Logs and Specs
The most obvious, and immediate, contrast between a log and a spec is their difference in size. It’s humorous when you think about it, imagine a person with an actual log in their eye! But that’s the point. If you had a telegraph pole poking out of your eye socket and you don’t know it’s there, not only are you going to impale people like a jousting knight, but you’re also going to see it everywhere you go. Like the rhino in the comic that always seems to have a large horn in every painting he does, we can fail to realise the reason why we keep seeing the same issue everywhere is because we’re projecting it!
What we so often see in others is the very log that is protruding from our face. If you are often sensing the people you deal with are unkind, impatient and aggressive, it’s quite possible you’re just seeing the horn on the end of your face. If you are discerning that people are disrespecting you, belittling you, and not giving you the honour you deserve, it’s likely that you are looking at people with dishonour and disrespect in your own eyes. Your log has become a lens through which you view the world and it needs to be removed, for as long as that log is there, you’ll never see clearly enough to help your brother with the spec in his eye.
This doesn’t just happen in the negative forms described above. Sometimes we can judge people simply because they’re not seeing things the way we do. If we are prophetic, we might judge people who don’t think prophetically about every situation. If we are Teachers, we might judge people who don’t see every problem as an opportunity for expository teaching. If we have the gift of mercy or generosity, we might judge people who in our eyes are cold hearted and stingy, even though they might be operating out of a gift of leadership that required looking at the forest and not the tree. Larry Osborn, in his book Accidental Pharisee, calls this ‘gift projection’. This is when impose on others the view of the world that we have, which is filtered through the lens of our unique gifting and ministry motivation, condemning people who do not see as we see or solve problems as we would. This is in effect, the log of pride stuck firmly in our eye.
What do you find yourself regularly complaining about in the people around you? Specifically, what in other Christians, especially leaders, do you find yourself criticising and judging? Is it possible you’re being a bit of a rhino in the picture you are painting of that leader or brother?
Master loggers
So how do we become masters of log removal? How do we minimise the damage we’re doing, running around with poles poking out of our faces, and develop a clear, less judgemental view of ourselves and the people around us?
There are a few key passages of scripture that offer us help:
Psalm 139:23-24 ”Search me, O God, and know my heart! Try me and know my thoughts! And see if there be any grievous way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting!“
1 Corinthians 11:28-29 “Let a person examine himself, then, and so eat of the bread and drink of the cup. For anyone who eats and drinks without discerning the body eats and drinks judgment on himself.”
John 16:8 And when he comes, he will convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment:”
Here we start to get a picture of what I call Holy Spirit Led Introspection.
The world has a great deal to say about introspection, its power, its usefulness and its dangers. The goal is not to become self absorbed, navel gazing Christians that beat ourselves up and lament our poor condition. We are, after all, redeemed, pure and blameless in His sight!So this is why it needs to be Holy Spirit led introspection and not worldly soul searching. The world’s methods will puff you up because there is no conviction, or leave you depressed because there is so much condemnation! Conviction comes from the Spirit, condemnation comes from the spirit of the world; the antichrist. What we need to do instead is invite God to search us and reveal to us what we cannot see, then, as he brings things up and convicts our hearts we confess our sin in the process of examination. Then we can repent and realign our hearts through participation in the bread and the cup of Christ, allowing the Holy Spirit to not only have convicted us of our sin, but to convince us of our righteousness in Christ. This final part is crucial in order reflect the image of Christ and not to be as a worm wriggling under the weight of sin and condemnation. We are already saved, but logging is our obedient participation in the process of sanctification and holiness, which is itself an act of true worship.
Notice in Jesus’ teaching, however, he does not say God will remove the logs. No, he instructs us to remove them ourselves. Clearly we need his guidance and his grace, but it points to the fact that removing these logs requires our effort. We must be active in the process of logging. This is not salvation by works, it is living as ones who are saved, it is our wilful participation in our spiritual formation.
Removing logs feels like removing a large, deep splinter; painful and at times, slow. Just when you think you have got it all, there is yet still more to remove. You might need to chop it down slowly and remove it chunk by chunk over many weeks, months or even years, until all that is left is a tiny spec that others may need to help you remove (more on that in a moment).
The gospel of Jesus is not a gospel of behaviour modification, it is a gospel of transformation. The result of our hearts being transformed from death to life is that our behaviour will need to be modified, in keeping with the calling with which we’ve been called. A quick survey of the Epistles makes it abundantly clear that our behaviour needs to be addressed, a lot! And it takes our effort and participation. Remember James who said, show me your faith by what you say, and I’ll show you mine by what I do. Fundamentally, we are saved by the work of Jesus, but we demonstrate, or prove our salvation by demonstration of our own works. We will be known as true disciples by our love for each other (John 13:35), we will be considered sheep and not goats based on our actions towards the poor (Matthew 25); how we live will be the evidence of whether or not we have truly received Salvation, or if we have simply been religious. The desire to be a logger and to be transformed is a fruit of the spirit, meaning it is the product of God’s Spirit within us, willing us to want to grow and mature in the image of Christ.
While we would all prefer character transformation to be instantaneous, like Jesus healing a leper or blind man, or like Neo instantly knowing how to do Kung Fu in The Matrix, there is no such thing as instant spiritual formation; there’s no altar call for log removal. Why? Because spiritual formation is always a process, and God is more interested in you participating with the process than arriving quickly at the destination. How fast you mature then is ultimately up to how willing you are to humble yourself.
When logs become specs
When I had a large splinter in my hand, which happens often working with timber as I do, sometimes the splinter breaks and a tiny spec still remains in my skin. This initially does not bother me, it’s not causing me any pain and so I can easily just forget that it’s even there. Eventually, however, it will get infected if not removed. While in our physical bodies a spec like this will often work its way to the surface and be ejected from the skin, this is not the case for ‘spec’ in our eyes. These little specs impair our vision ever so slightly, they’re far more subtle than large logs, and require deeper, more communal work to remove them.
Jesus said that once you have removed the logs from your own eye, you will be able to finally see clearly enough to assist your brother, or sister, in the removal of the spec in their eye. Two things are happening here that are worth considering.
Firstly; the contrast in size, logs and specs, becomes more obvious once the log is removed and suddenly the ‘thing’ we saw in that other person that we were so worried about now appears much smaller. When you engage in logging properly, the byproduct will be humility, and a humble person is far less judgmental and Pharisaical, thus, the ‘big issue’ you noticed in a brother now appears as a spec simply because you’ve grown up.
The second thing happening here, is that the removal of specs requires community. Jesus entrusts log removal to each of us; it’s our work to do as the Spirit assists and empowers us. But the removing of specs is something Jesus says we are to help others to do. Jesus does not say that because we have logs we should ignore the specs our brothers have, but that we are to do our inner work first before helping others do theirs, this way, we will see clearly and be of use to our brothers.
In order to see a log in someone’s eye, you don’t need to get close to them, you can see it a mile away. You can see it online, you can see it vicariously, you don’t even need to have a relationship with someone to know they have a log hanging out of their eye socket; it’s so obvious! Not so with a spec.
To see a spec, and to see it clearly, requires close proximity as well as clear vision. You need to be up close and personal; relational. And this is precisely why Jesus finishes this section of teaching talking about pearls and pigs.
It is a delicate and precious thing to allow someone to get so close to you as to see a spec in your eye. What’s more, it requires a great deal of trust and vulnerability to allow someone to extract some small spec out of your eye; it’s risky, and potentially dangerous.
Jesus warns us not to throw our pearls to pigs, as they will trample them. The message is clear; do not give delicate, valuable parts of your life to careless, carnal creatures who will not place the proper value on things nor handle them with care. Jesus is not teaching against being generous, nor to sharing good things with ungrateful people, nor is he teaching against resisting evil people, for certainly elsewhere we are called to precisely these things (Luke 14; Matthew 5:39; 1 Timothy 6:18). Jesus is instructing us to refrain from throwing pearls to pigs in the context of logging and spec removal.
Don’t ask a pig to help you remove the spec in your eye, all they will do is make it muddy.
The spec in your eye is precious to God because it resides in the deepest part of your heart and is the remnant of years of logging. For years you have done the painstaking work of humbling yourself, examining yourself, allowing the Spirit of God to shape and mould you into the image of Christ more fully. Now, there is a spec deep in your soul that he wants to remove, but in order to form humility and meekness into your spirit at an even greater depth and magnitude, God now invites you to open that tender an vulnerable part of your soul up to a trusted and dear brother or sister to help you.
It’s not just the pigs we are to avoid, Jesus also warns against giving to dogs what is holy.
There are two prominent references to dogs in the New Testament that come to mind. The first is the Syrophenician woman who asks Jesus to heal her child and Jesus says it is not right to give the children’s bread to dogs. There’s a lot going on in that discussion, but for now, suffice to say that there are certain things we ought not give to certain people. This woman appealed to Jesus as the Son of David, and he said no, because she was no daughter of Abraham. But when she then appealed to him as ‘Lord’, Jesus responded and healed her child for she was now appealing to his larger identity. Jesus was not just the Jewish messiah, the Son of David, he was also the Saviour of the world; the Lord (Mark 7:24-30). This article is not a commentary on that passage, but what we can glean from it for our conversation is that there are certain things we ought not give certain people.
The second mention of dogs in the New Testament that comes to mind is when Paul warns the Philippians about some ‘dogs’, we see it in Philippians 3:2, “Look out for the dogs, look out for the evildoers, look out for those who mutilate the flesh.”
Commentators tend to agree this is not three different groups of people to watch out for, but one group described three different ways. These evil, flesh mutilating ‘dogs’ are the religious Jews trying to enforce circumcision on the church, hence the flesh mutilating is literal. These ‘dogs’ are discompassionate, lacking gentleness and grace, they are more concerned with the law than with the power of the Gospel. In fact, such ‘dogs’ have not truly received the Gospel for they continue to put confidence in the flesh, something Paul deals heavily with in his letter to the Galatians.
Do not give what is holy to dogs. Do not open up the tender parts of your soul, where surgery is needed to remove specs, to those religious leaders who care more about looking good than being good. Such people will tear at the spec with grace-less law instead of tender mercy and grace. They will mutilate your flesh instead of seeking to bring it healing. So avoid the pigs, steer clear of the dogs, and find yourself a true brother or sister in Christ who has become humble through becoming a master logger themselves.
The thing is, you can’t gain such a close brother over night; that requires time in the trenches. Such a bond is built over years of doing life together; worshiping, fellowshipping, breaking bread, sharing burdens, bearing with one another and developing an authentic common-faith based love for each other. Here’s the kicker: if you hope to one day have the specs removed from your life, then you need to start putting the work in relationally now, so when the time comes you will have a brother with sufficient clarity of vision and proximity to your life to carefully, lovingly and gracefully help you to remove it. The only other option is to cast your pearls before the pigs. Often this role is carried out by pastors and mentors, but it supposed to be all of us bearing with each other and loving each other as Christ loved us.
Start small. Continue small. It’s a slow burn
Like eating an elephant one bite at a time, there is no prize for going big or going fast, all you’ll get is indigestion. In a similar vein, if you want to put a rocket into space, there is no prize for getting there faster. A rocket needs a controlled, slow burn in order to generate the kind of thrust needed to accurately push the rocket out of our atmosphere. It is the same with spiritual formation and logging. Do it slowly. Take the ‘slow burn’ approach, run your race like an ultra marathon, not a sprint, so you don’t burn out and fail to finish.
Remember, the journey is the point, not the finish line, because you don’t know where the finish line is. It could be 50 years away, or 5; no one knows. So run as if you have another 90 years to go, pace yourself, start small, continue small, let the spirit light the fire of a controlled slow burn and chip away at the logs, build a brotherhood (or a sisterhood if you’re a woman) and in time you’ll have the help you need to remove some specs as well.
Invest your love, patience, kindness and generosity into others, and in time, you will reap what you sow. The measure of grace and ‘bearing-with’ you offer others, will be measured back to you, and the type of judgement you enact on others will be enacted on you; so aim for loving judgement, which starts in the mirror. In this way, you will slowly but surely be developing the kinds of relationships today that you will depend on tomorrow. Serve together, feast together, celebrate and grieve together, offer one another grace and mercy, prayer and strength, and when the time comes you will have trusted, mercy filled friends to assist you with spec removal, and you with theirs.
In the meantime, sharpen your axe and dedicate yourself to the lifelong process of being a logger. Marinate your soul in the scripture until you see clearly who Christ-in-you is meant to be, ask the Holy Spirit to show you which log is next, and start clearing the forest so that Christ might be seen in you more clearly. This… this is the work of spiritual formation. This is the habit, the routine, the cycle of death and new life. Cutting down trees and logs of self and sin, hauling them away to the foot of the cross and allowing the light of God’s presence to shine in you more fully, and out of you more brightly. Resist this work and be stagnant. Reject this work and you will find yourself becoming more judgmental instead of humble, more arrogant instead of gentle, more harsh instead of meek, and more bitter instead of joyful. This is the work, this is the plow, and we ought put our hands to it and not look back.
Discover more from Seeds & Streams
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
