How Jesus Taught and Changed the World
A disciple is not above his teacher, but everyone when he is fully trained will be like his teacher.
Why do you see the speck that is in your brother’s eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye? How can you say to your brother, ‘Brother, let me take out the speck that is in your eye,’ when you yourself do not see the log that is in your own eye?
You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take out the speck that is in your brother’s eye.
For no good tree bears bad fruit, nor again does a bad tree bear good fruit, for each tree is known by its own fruit. For figs are not gathered from thorn bushes, nor are grapes picked from a bramble bush.
The good person out of the good treasure of his heart produces good, and the evil person out of his evil treasure produces evil, for out of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaks.
I was talking to a friend recently about the milieu of people fighting about things on Facebook and he said something that really stopped me in my tracks:
What if nobody felt like they had to convince anybody of anything?
I immediately went back to posting pictures of food.
For a long time I read this as a corrective thing, like Jesus was telling us how to teach and how to live and so, by golly, you’d better act like this.
Instead, re-read this through as if Jesus is answering the question: How are you going to disciple us, Jesus? How are you going to train us to teach other people “everything you have commanded” like you said in the great commission?
The best kind of learning comes from the Holy Spirit working inside people. The best kind of teaching comes from people working with the Holy Spirit — working inside of them to teach themselves and others.
In other words, I can tell you to pull the speck out of your eye, and you’ll laugh at my plank. But if you watch me humbly, with Christ, pull the plank out of my own eye, the Holy Spirit can work in your soul to help you with your speck.
When my wife or I do something that grates on the other person’s nerves, we try not to correct each other right away. Instead, we pray for one another in secret. Sometimes, within a few hours, the grating stops. Not because somebody got corrected, but because the Holy Spirit worked in both of us to either make the behavior less irritating or to make it stop. (I wish we did it all the time! The Holy Spirit is such a better teacher than a preference fight!)
I had a boss once that started a new job and stripped all of the Christian symbols from his car and took nothing into his new office. He wanted to see if he could be an evangelistic Christian without any outward signs.
It took 2 days. Just by his actions, we knew something about him. (He went on to become a good mentor and friend to me apart from the ad industry!)
Let’s dwell in Jesus today and bear His fruit. He is the best teacher with the best technique, and anything else is going to be less than what He dreamed of.
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