Have you ever visited someone’s home and thought, ‘Man, their house is a mess even though you know your home is way messier?

Sometimes I clean houses as a side job and the last house I have been cleaning is way cleaner than my own home, which is a weird thing to say as a house cleaner.  Working this job has got me thinking about how we look at dirt.   When we look at someone’s home we look at their dirt differently than our own dirt. Their dirt looks dirtier than our dirt because it isn’t our dirt.  I then began thinking about how we look at our own sin verses how we look at other people’s sins.

Sometimes when we look at others it is easy to pick out their sin and just like other people’s dirt, it can seem way worse than our own sin.  But is it really? 

“Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brothers eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye?  Matthew 7:3

My spiteful self says that there are a lot of people I know that I would love to recite this verse to and then ask them if they would want ice for that burn.  Often, I am the one who needs an ice bath. 

Jesus is teaching us in this verse that we often overlook what we have done and judge other people’s sin.  Their sin may look larger to us, but God doesn’t look at it that way.  Sorry, but sin is sin.

I once heard a preacher talk about a prostitute who came to church and was saved.  They welcomed her and then told her that now she had to make a drastic change in her life and change her occupation immediately.  Which is true, but she didn’t know how she was going to feed her children and desperation is what had driven her into that profession in the first place.  With her newfound faith she trusted God to provide and left the church to go home. 

As she walked across the parking lot, she noticed one gentleman was smoking a cigarette as he got into his car.  She questioned why she had to change drastically but it was understood that he needed time to wean from his addiction.  The next car over were two older ladies whispering and gossiping about a church member who was struggling in their marriage.   As she drove by the local buffet there was a family trying to convince the cashier that their child was only eleven when they were almost old enough to drive so they would pay less for their lunch.  There had been a man in leadership positions in the church that morning who she had seen at the bar a few nights ago with a woman that wasn’t his wife. 

I’m sure everyone in that church was aware of her profession and after the service many were texting each other ‘spilling the tea’ about what they had heard about her.  I would rather like to think that the church would have one member who could help her get a resume together, the food pantry would drop off food to help her out till she gets on her feet, the clothing ministry would help her find outfits to wear to an interview, another member would teach her how to look for jobs on the internet, and someone would offer to help with babysitting so she can go to a job interview.

As Christians we are representatives of Christ to the world.  What impression do you want to leave?