The Dirty Window

The following blog is a summary of a message preached by Pastor Eddie Lawrence.

Watch the Sermon HERE!

It's easy to notice the flaws in other people while staying blind to our own. Jesus had a lot to say about this tendency, and His words are just as sharp today as they were when He first spoke them. This is a look at three powerful truths from Scripture that challenge us to check our own hearts before we check everyone else's.

Are You More Bothered by Other People's Sin Than Your Own?

That's the real question. Most of us, if we're honest, tend to be far more disturbed by what we see in others than by what lives in us. Jesus addressed this directly, and He didn't hold back.

The Pharisee and the Tax Collector: Who Are You More Like?

In Luke 18, Jesus tells the story of two men who went to pray. One was a Pharisee, religiously polished and proud. The other was a tax collector, despised by society. The Pharisee prayed like this:

"God, I thank you that I am not like other men." - Luke 18:11

The tax collector wouldn't even lift his eyes toward heaven. He simply said:

"God, be merciful to me, a sinner." - Luke 18:13

Jesus declared that the tax collector, not the Pharisee, went home right with God.

The Pharisee wasn't looking inward. He was looking around, comparing himself to people he considered worse. And that's the trap. When we measure ourselves against other people, we almost always find someone we think is doing worse than us. But that's the wrong gauge entirely.

What Is the Right Standard to Measure Yourself By?

The proper measure is the perfection, righteousness, and holiness of Jesus Christ. Not your neighbor. Not the person in the news. Not someone whose sin is more visible than yours.

Scripture is clear: "For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God." - Romans 3:23

None of us meet the mark on our own. That's exactly why grace exists.

When You Exalt Yourself Above Others, God Will Exalt Others Above You

This is the first hard truth from this passage. Pride has a way of reversing itself. James and 1 Peter both remind us that God resists the proud but gives grace to the humble.

Humility is not weakness. It's not a false sense of having nothing to offer. True humility is being confident in who you are in Christ, not in who you are on your own. There's a big difference between those two things.

For anyone to receive salvation, they first have to come face to face with the reality that they need it. The tax collector understood that. The Pharisee did not.

Why Do You See the Speck in Someone Else's Eye but Miss the Plank in Your Own?

In Matthew 7:3-5, Jesus asks one of the most convicting questions in all of Scripture:

"Why do you look at the speck in your brother's eye, but do not consider the plank in your own eye? Hypocrite! First remove the plank from your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother's eye." - Matthew 7:3-5

Jesus isn't saying we should never help someone else work through sin. He's saying there's an order to it. And most of us skip the first step.

What Is the "Dirty Window" Problem?

There's an old story about a woman who stood at her kitchen sink every morning, looking out at her neighbor hanging laundry. Day after day she complained that her neighbor's clothes were always dirty and that she clearly didn't know how to wash them properly.

Then one morning, she looked out and said, "Oh, someone must have helped her. Look how clean her clothes are today."

Her husband replied, "No, sweetheart. I got up this morning and cleaned the window."

That's the dirty window problem. We think we're seeing other people clearly, but our own perspective is the thing that needs cleaning.

When You Fail to Examine Yourself, You Will Tend to Excuse Your Own Sin

This is the second hard truth. It's painful to look inward. It's much easier to focus outward. But when we skip self-examination, we don't just miss our own sin. We start making excuses for it while holding others to a standard we aren't meeting ourselves.

There are people who would be sitting in a church somewhere this Sunday if someone hadn't gone after their speck with a plank still in their own eye. That kind of hypocrisy does real damage to real people.

The goal isn't to stop caring about sin. The goal is to get your own heart right first, so that when you do help someone else, you're actually helping them and not harming them.

What Happens When You Refuse to Show Mercy After You've Received It?

Jesus tells another story in Matthew 18 about a servant who owed an enormous debt. His master had mercy on him and forgave the whole thing. But then that same servant went and found someone who owed him a small amount and had him thrown in jail.

When the master heard what happened, he said:

"You wicked servant! I forgave you all that debt because you begged me. Should you not also have had compassion on your fellow servant, just as I had pity on you?" - Matthew 18:32-33

The master then handed him over to be tormented until the debt was paid.

Why Unforgiveness Leads to Misery

When you refuse to give mercy after you have received mercy, you invite misery into your own life. Unforgiveness doesn't just affect the person you won't forgive. It torments you.

Whatever anyone has done to us, it is small compared to what was done to Christ. And yet He bore all of it to forgive us completely. The blood of Jesus Christ cleanses us from all sin, not most of it, not the manageable parts of it. All of it.

"The blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin." - 1 John 1:7

How to Be a Grace-Filled Person Without Celebrating Sin

Being a person of grace and mercy doesn't mean pretending sin doesn't matter. Sin cost Jesus His life. It's serious. But there's a difference between taking sin seriously and using it as a weapon against people who are still trapped in it.

The goal is to love people who are enslaved by sin, because grace has the power to change wrong desires into righteous ones. When God's grace comes into a life, it gives both the desire and the power to do His will.

People are not coming through the doors of a church because they have it all together. They're coming because they're lonely, hurting, and hopeless. They need to encounter the same grace that changed you.

Three Truths to Carry With You

• When you exalt yourself above others, God will exalt others above you.
• When you fail to examine yourself, you will tend to excuse your own sin.
• When you refuse to give mercy after receiving it, you invite misery into your life.

Life Application

This week, before you find yourself frustrated with someone else's behavior or tempted to point out another person's failures, pause and do something harder: examine your own heart first. Ask God to show you what's in your own eye before you reach for someone else's.

Choose one relationship in your life where you have been withholding mercy or holding a grudge, and take a step toward forgiveness. It doesn't have to be a grand gesture. It starts with a decision made before God in private.

Ask yourself these questions:

• Am I measuring myself against other people, or against the standard of Christ?
• Is there a sin in my own life that I've been excusing while judging the same thing in someone else?
• Is there someone I have refused to forgive, even though I have received forgiveness for far more?
• When people encounter me, do they experience the grace of God or the judgment of a Pharisee?

Clean the window. Humble your heart. And let the mercy you've received become the mercy you freely give.