Correct yourself first before others

Call To Prayer

Title: Correct yourself first before others

By: Njuacha Hubert

Date: 10.10.2022

“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.” Mathew 7:5

One time, I had an appointment to go on a social outing with my boss and my colleagues. A few days before, I had come late for an official meeting. I came for this appointment 10 minutes late not expecting any complaints but I was received with stern comments like “Your late coming is becoming habitual”. I felt really embarrassed and pissed off. Then I began to judge in my heart how bad they were. I thought to myself. “Why would they be so intolerant? It is just an outing. They are treating me with contempt because I am African”. Then the Holy Spirit convicted me to be still and think clearly. I began to try to look at my own fault. “I was late, wasn’t I? It was the second time in a few days, wasn’t it? Why shouldn’t I be corrected”. I also thought “being 10 minutes late was ok for me but they are Germans and punctuality is a culture for them. Why do I want to impose myself instead of adapting to them?”. After concentrating on my faults I was able to recover my mood and I had a great time with my colleagues.

Our opening scripture says we should remove the plank out of our own eyes, and then we will see clearly to remove the speck from our brother’s eye.
You see, there is nothing that the word of God will ask you to do that is not for your good. Many at times we are stagnant and don’t grow because we want to correct everybody else but never accept correction. From my story above I was able to truly recognise late coming as an area of my life to improve rather than judge and condemn people for things that might have been far from their intentions (I was assuming they were being racist). Pride will make us want to concentrate on what others have done wrong instead of acknowledging our own faults. Because of the grace to humble myself, I was able to try to understand their perspective. And so I didn’t miss out on giving and receiving love during the outing we had.
In our relationships. We need to truly listen when others are complaining to us. Not just waiting for one to finish talking and give our own complaints. Before you can complain (if you must. because sometimes we can just forgive trivial offences without talking about them) let’s try to recognise our own faults and apologize for them. If you can’t apologize why will you expect another person to apologize to you? Why not set an example? Someone may read this and say please tell this to so so and so person. But fortunately or unfortunately I am telling this to you. Now you know better and it is better to teach by showing the example. Just as our master taught us by showing the example. Christ washed the feet of the apostles before telling them to do the same (John 13:12-14).

Prayer Point: 

Let’s thank God for this word we have received. Let’s pray for the grace to be humble and acknowledge our faults first before correcting others if we have to.

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