Compare and Compete
Comparing ourselves to, and competing with, other people come naturally to us. No one has to teach us to look at other people and decide whether we’re better or worse than they are. We don’t have to take a class on how to exert ourselves in ways that promote ourselves and denigrate others.
Comparing and competing with others happens everywhere with everyone you know. With your roommates, your siblings, your parents, your teachers or professors, your classmates, your coworkers, your supervisors, your government, your neighbors, and even your brothers and sisters in Christ. We neatly categorize people we know as those we’re better than, equal to, or worse than. And the formula we use to decide is often heavily skewed in our favor.
But when Jesus comes to you and begins a relationship with you, you begin to learn how much time you’ve wasted thinking about how you stack up compared to others. When Jesus comes into our lives, one of the things that happens is that our eyes start gravitating toward him in worship, toward others in affection, and toward ourselves in introspection.
A follower of Jesus begins noticing that as long as they’re comparing themselves to others they’re not free to truly love them. Jesus has a way of changing the way we see everything, including other people, and including ourselves.
Focus on What’s in the Mirror
Last week, in Luke 6:27-36, we saw what Jesus has to say about how we treat others, especially those who don’t treat us well. This week, in Luke 6:37-49, Jesus teaches us to look carefully at ourselves. Last week: love others. This week: don’t be preoccupied with others.
The main point of our text today is that followers of Jesus should be preoccupied with their own spiritual condition, not the spiritual condition of others. Jesus tells us, first, to not worry about other people (vv. 37-38), and, second, to worry about ourselves (vv. 39-49). Jesus tells those who’re following him to focus on what they see in the mirror, not what they see in others.
Don’t Worry about Other People
First, in verses 37-38, Jesus tells his followers to not worry about other people. In these two verses, Jesus gives four exhortations about how we should view other people, four imperatives followed by one promise.
The four imperatives are: judge not, condemn not, forgive, and give. Let’s go through these quickly. The command to not judge doesn’t mean we can never make ethical or moral evaluations. Jesus himself does this with the Pharisees in 11:42-44.
The command is against a judgmental attitude toward others that holds them down in guilt. Jesus prohibits his disciples from having an arrogance and self-righteousness that puts them in God’s place, making them the standard of righteousness.
The command to not condemn others is similar in nature. Jesus’ followers are slow to condemn because they understand that God will treat them the way they treat others, “Condemn not, and you will not be condemned.” God will deal with each person according to how that person deals with others.
The command to forgive is in the same vein. If we don’t forgive, we aren’t forgiven. Or to say it another way, if we do forgive, it shows that we know what forgiveness is. As Paul says, “Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you” (Eph. 4:32). Again, it’s not that we never make moral evaluations. The call to forgive means we know what it means to be wronged. The warning is against evaluating people with an exacting harshness out of an unforgiving attitude.
And then Jesus says, “Give, and it will be given to you” (v. 38). Jesus says that the one who gives will receive, that a generosity of spirit, especially toward enemies, will be honored by God. This promise is then illustrated with the image of counting out grain in abundance (v. 38b). God promises to reward his disciple’s gracious actions toward others.
When we compare and compete with others, we either measure people harshly or generously. Jesus says that whatever standard we use with others is the one God will use with us.
The generosity of God in this context isn’t about material prosperity. In this context, forgiveness and the absence of condemnation is in view. Those who live like this are blessed with increasing fellowship with God and his transforming power in their lives, as well as new relationships with other believers (cf. 18:29-30).
In these verses, Jesus commands his followers to not be consumed with other people’s spiritual conditions, to not worry about others so much. Rather, we’re to have a generous, forgiving spirit toward them, remembering that the standard we apply to others is what God will apply to us.
Why We Judge
Why does Jesus need to tell us these things? Because he knows that the spiritual cancer of pride crawls inside all our hearts. Pride is why we judge, condemn, refuse to forgive and withhold love from people.
The essence of pride is thinking God is smaller than he is and that we’re larger than we are. So killing pride is about understanding God and ourselves properly. C. S. Lewis, in Mere Christianity, says it like this:
“In God you come up against something which is in every respect immeasurably superior to yourself. Unless you know God as that – and, therefore, know yourself as nothing in comparison – you do not know God at all. As long as you are proud you cannot know God. A proud man is always looking down on things and people: and, of course, as long as you are looking down, you cannot see something that is above you.”[1]
Lewis goes on to talk about how pride creeps into the life of religious people, saying:
“Whenever we find that our religious life is making us feel that we are good – above all, that we are better than someone else – I think we may be sure that we are being acted on, not by God, but by the devil. The real test of being in the presence of God is, that you either forget about yourself altogether or see yourself as a small, dirty object. It is better to forget about yourself altogether.”[2]
Pride is why we judge and condemn others, why we look down on others. We do this to make ourselves feel better about ourselves, to elevate ourselves above others. But, Jesus says, pride has no place among his followers. Rather, they see others the way they want to be seen: with mercy and grace.
Worry about Yourself
Then in verses 39-49, Jesus shifts gears and tells his disciples to worry about themselves more than others. He gives three parables about self-examination in these verses. He says his disciples need to look at their flaws (vv. 39-42), look at their fruit (vv. 43-45), and look at their foundation (vv. 46-49).
Look at Your Flaws
In verses 39-42, Jesus says his disciples need to watch where they’re going and watch themselves. Verse 39 has two rhetorical questions with one main point: if you try to lead yourself spiritually, you’re in danger.
Jesus is warning his disciples to not blindly follow anyone but himself. He’s trying to keep us from falling into a hole we can’t get out of. If we try to follow our own spiritual intuition or look to teachers other than Jesus, we’re going to severely harm ourselves.
This is one reason why every follower of Jesus should join a local church that believes the Bible and preaches the gospel. Being in formal community with other believers protects us from falling into the pit of self-deception. This is also why our main diet of Bible teaching should come from the local church we’re part of. Anyone can say anything on the internet, and videos and podcasts can be helpful, but in a healthy local church where the congregation is guarding the gospel, the teaching can be trusted to feed and nourish the sheep in specific ways that outside teaching can’t because those teachers don’t know you.
This is what Jesus is getting at in verse 40. Choosing our teachers is extremely important because we’ll become like them. Jesus’ point is simple: be careful who you follow.
Jesus is saying that, because the product is like the producer, his followers should never go beyond his teaching. He’s the only authoritative teacher worthy of our complete allegiance.
Blind people think they know where they’re going, but they don’t and they often end up hurting lots of people. And one reason people are blind is because they’re so focused on everyone but themselves (vv. 41-42).
The “speck” is a small flake of wood or straw, while the “log” refers to the main beam of a building. The contrast couldn’t be greater. The critic is concerned with a piece of dust in someone else’s eye while a beam is coming out of his own eye. Dr. Darrell Bock summarizes Jesus’ point better than I can:
“The point is simple: What nerve someone with major problems has to be concerned about minor problems in someone else. The obvious response is that one should not worry about the person with minor problems while one has unresolved major problems to face. One should be self-critical before thinking about being critical of others. Jesus says not to patronize others with your expert advice if you have not dealt with your own problems first.”[3]
In verse 42, Jesus calls the person who does this a “hypocrite,” a word that means “play-actor.” It’s a word meaning insincerity in someone who fails to deal with themselves honestly. As Bock says, “One pretends that sin offends while ignoring one’s own sin.”[4] This kind of person focuses on carefully analyzing others while ignoring obvious faults in themselves.
Jesus’ advice isn’t to never try to deal with other people’s problems. He says that before we do we need to deal with the major problems in our lives before we’ll be able to truly help others. When we deal with our own stuff first, we’ll be better able to sensitively deal with others. Those who’re truly ready to help others are those who’ve learned to see and deal with their own faults first.
Look at Your Fruit
The second parable is about a tree and its fruit in verses 43-45, where Jesus explains why being self-critical and self-correcting is so important.
This illustration explains the beam-speak image of the preceding verses (v. 43, “for”). Jesus says that taking a hard look at ourselves is important because it reveals what kind of person we really are. The “fruit” is the product of one’s life. Good fruit comes from good trees, bad fruit comes from bad trees.
The principle of verse 43 is followed by two illustrations in verse 44. Figs don’t come from thornbushes and grapes don’t come from bramble bushes. Jesus’ point is simple: you produce what you are.
These verses connect back to the previous ones, meaning that Jesus’ primary intent is self-examination not the examination of others. He’s not telling us to become fruit inspectors for everyone else. He’s telling us to inspect our own fruit.
Just as there are good and bad trees, so verse 45 says there are good and bad people. The “heart” is the key image in this verse and it refers to who we are, our deepest thoughts and being and affections and will and desires. Jesus says that out of our inner self comes “treasure” distributed to those around us. Out of the storehouse of our inner person comes either good or evil treasure.
Specifically, the end of verse 45 says that our words reveal what kind of treasure is in our hearts. What we say comes from who we are.
Our words reveal our hearts. What’s in us is what comes out of us. This is why Jesus says in Matthew 12 that we’ll be judged by every careless word we speak. He even says that we’ll be justified or condemned by our words (12:36-37). Why? Because our words reveal whether we’re justified or not. They don’t save us but reveal whether we’re saved.
Jesus says we can tell what our spiritual condition is by looking at the fruit of our lives, especially the fruit of our lips. Introspection of our hearts is what he’s after, not inspection of others. Honest self-evaluation and self-correction is a mark of a true disciple and is a prerequisite for being able to truly help others.
Look at Your Foundation
The third parable in verses 46-49 encourages us to look at the foundation of our lives and determine if it’ll hold up in a storm or not.
The focus of this passage is on obeying Jesus’ words. He says it makes no sense to call him “Lord, Lord” and then ignore what he teaches. The person who emphatically confesses that Jesus is Lord but doesn’t do what he says is emphatically deceived. No matter how strongly we feel about Jesus, if our confession of Jesus isn’t backed up with obedience to Jesus, there’s no substance in our confession. It’s just words.
The point of this little parable is to challenge disciples to make sure they’re not in the group that hypocritically pays respects to Jesus but doesn’t live out what he teaches.
Only those who come to Jesus, listen to him, and do what he says have a house built on a foundation that won’t be swept away in the flood (vv. 47-48). Those who hear Jesus’ words but don’t do them are living in a house that’s going to be easily and quickly destroyed.
This parable is a warning to not take Jesus’ teaching lightly. If we’re just hearers and not doers of the word, we’re in grave danger. The consequences of listening to the gospel and not responding is disastrous. Listening is easy. Billions of people have heard Jesus’ words. But far fewer have listened in a way that resulted in active following and obedience.
A Choice
The choice is put before you: will you follow Jesus and do what he says to do, or will you follow yourself or some other blind guide?
Luke’s argument here is that it’s not a difficult choice once you understand what’s at stake. A solid home that stands up through storms is better than one that falls on you and kills you the first time a storm comes. When you think through the options, it’s clear that the only rational thing to do is to accept Jesus and his teaching. Have you?
The best way to know whether you have or not is to take a long, hard look in the mirror, honestly assessing what you see with the help of a trusted friend. Looking in the mirror now will prepare you to live in glory later.
[1]C. S. Lewis, Mere Christianity (New York: Harper Collins, 1980), 124.
[2]Ibid., 124-5.
[3]Darrell L. Bock, Luke, Volume 1: 1:1-9:50, Baker Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament (Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 1994), 614.
[4]Ibid.