Reconciliation – Part 2
Matthew 7:1-5 “Do not judge, or you too will be judged. For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you. 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? How can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when all the time there is a plank in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye.”
When it comes to reconciliation one of the first steps we are to take is to start with ourselves. The above passage illustrates the truth that it is easy to see what is wrong with others, but far more difficult to see what is wrong with us. We are to make sure that the ‘log’ is out of our own eye before we try to take the ‘splinter’ out of the eye of our brother/sister.
This, I believe, is a very delicate matter. I think this is the reason why the Lord Jesus uses the illustration of the eye since the eye is one of the most sensitive parts of the human body. So when the Lord talks about relationships and reconciliation, I believe these must be treated as delicate matters.
Ephesians 4:1-3 “As a prisoner for the Lord, then, I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling you have received. Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love. Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace.”
We have unity in Christ. It will take work and effort to maintain this unity. Here in Ephesians Paul is giving us the type of behavior necessary to maintain unity and to bring about reconciliation. This is what we must consider to make sure that we have the ‘log’ out of our own eye.
1. Humility: The Greek word means humiliation of mind, i.e. modesty.
1 Peter 5:5 probably best brings out the idea of what Paul is trying to say here. “Young men, in the same way be submissive to those who are older. All of you, clothe yourselves with humility toward one another, because, ‘God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.’” The idea is to bring ourselves under.
2. Gentleness: The Greek word brings out the idea of mildness, meekness. Matthew 5:5 “Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth.”
Meekness does not mean weakness. Perhaps the best way to describe this is “strength under control.” It is the ability (or strength) to destroy, but held in check. A good example of this is Moses. He was the meekest man on the earth. When he came down from the Mountain with the Ten Commandments in his arms and saw the debauchery taking place among God’s people he could have stepped aside and allowed God to destroy them, but he didn’t. Strength under control.
3. Patience: Perhaps one of the best definitions of the Greek word for
patience is, “to be long-tempered.” One of the problems in relationships is anger. This is something that we will look at later. When it comes to establishing and maintaining relationships, anger is something that will have to be dealt with.
4. Forbearance: Again the best definition for this word is, “to put up with.” In the New King James Version of the Bible it says: “Or do you despise the riches of His goodness, forbearance, and longsuffering, not knowing that the goodness of God leads you to repentance?” (Romans 2:4) We see that ‘forbearance’ is one of the attributes of God.
In closing I would like to say that the prayer for myself and for those that read this is that we might experience daily revival. We need to see afresh how important relationships are and yet often how difficult they are to maintain. Still maintain them we must. This is our message of reconciliation and we cannot allow anything to interfere with that message.