Matthew 7:5 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
No, I haven’t taken up recreational pot. Though the senior pastor of a London church did once tell me that, if they legalised cannabis, he wanted to be the first man to smoke a joint in his church’s pulpit to test if his congregation really believed in freedom in Christ!
The man in question was walking along the pavement towards me, whilst I was running with the dog this afternoon. As I passed him and his mate two things happened. Firstly he said, “That dog should be on a lead!” And secondly I ran through a cloud of cannabis smoke created by their dodgy fags.
I was outraged! How dare he tell me to put my dog on the lead when he’s smoking weed! So outraged that as I ran past a woman (walking her dog on the lead) ten metres further along the pavement, I paused to tell her what a hypocrite that rough looking, joint smoking, bloke was.
Then I realised that I was no better than him. In many ways worse.
You see I have deliberately avoided finding out whether the law says you have to have your dog on the lead whilst walking on a pavement, because then I can maintain my blissful ignorance and do what I want.
I know that the 1 Peter 2:13 says “13 Submit yourselves for the Lord’s sake to every authority instituted among men:” largely because I like quoting it at other people. But when it comes to dogs and leads I don’t want to submit to anyone but me.
So my defence for not having my dog on a lead was not based on whether I was doing the right thing, but rather on the fact I could smell he was doing something far worse according to me. I was judging him by a standard that I was not applying to myself.
Jesus warns his followers about being hypocrites.
The reason that I am worse than my weed smoking adversary is that my eyes have been opened to the truth of God’s word. I know the joy of finding my righteousness in Christ, by grace alone, through faith alone. But when challenged about my sinful disregard for local by-laws, I didn’t repent and look to Christ for forgiveness. I looked to his joint to save my conscience!