It is an amazing thing to me the difference between how you feel when someone purports to “tell you the truth in love” about yourself, and when God tells you the truth about yourself in His love! Both are painful but it seems the pain arises from different places: in regard to the former, it quite likely arises from the flesh at times, but with the latter, from the place where conviction is experienced. Rather than it being the pain of wounded pride perhaps, you find it is the pain of having grieved God in what He has put His finger on. Where there may be a sneaking suspicious of the motives of the person “speaking the truth in love”, with God our heavenly Father, it truly is mercy and truth at work – there can be no real shadow of doubt about this. And so was the case with me one morning when the Lord pointed it out: The plank! The hypocrisy! The cure!
It was as I read these words of Lord Yeshua, as recorded, at Luke 6:41-42:
And why do you look at the speck in your brother’s eye, but do not perceive the plank in your own eye? Or how can you say to your brother, ‘Brother, let me remove the speck that is in your eye,’ when you yourself do not see the plank that is in your own eye? Hypocrite! First remove the plank from your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck that is in your brother’s eye.
My vision was adjusted that morning even as my heart was rebuked concerning a wrong heart attitude towards another in the family of God. It was much-needed if the benefit of God’s work of grace within is to be more fully realised and enjoyed. This brought to mind the word at Hebrews 12:5-15, which also pointed to the Lord’s mercy:
And you have forgotten the exhortation which speaks to you as to sons:
“My son, do not despise the chastening of the Lord,
Nor be discouraged when you are rebuked by Him:
For whom the Lord loves He chastens,
And scourges every son whom He receives.”
If you endure chastening, God deals with you as with sons; for what son is there whom a father does not chasten? But if you are without chastening, of which all have become partakers, then you are illegitimate and not sons. Furthermore, we have had human fathers who corrected us, and we paid them respect. Shall we not much more readily be in subjection to the Father of spirits and live? For they indeed for a few days chastened us as seemed best to them, but He for our profit, that we may be partakers of His holiness. Now no chastening seems to be joyful for the present, but painful; nevertheless, afterward it yields the peaceable fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it. Therefore strengthen the hands which hang down, and the feeble knees, and make straight paths for your feet, so that what is lame may not be dislocated, but rather be healed.
Pursue peace with all people, and holiness, without which no one will see the Lord: looking carefully lest anyone fall short of the grace of God; lest any root of bitterness springing up cause trouble, and by this many become defiled.
Yes, it was a much needed ‘ouch’ – indeed a real “selah” moment! Praise the Lord for His ‘mercy and grace to help us in our times of need’ (Hebrews 4:16). Amen.
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