READ: Luke 6:41-42
“…Thou hypocrite, cast out first the beam out of thine own eye…” – Luke 6:42
When there is a visiting preacher from abroad, no one considers whether he is an impatient or easily-angered man. All we do is to receive his ministry. However, these are thoughts that occur to us about men of God that we are familiar with. We think, “He must be angry today, this man is not patient.” As he preaches we say to ourselves,
“We understand what he is saying; why does he not progress to the next point?”
I once had a church member who really enjoyed my messages. However as time went by, she became familiar with my preaching and with me. One day after church she said to me, “I think you went over last week’s point for too long.” She continued, “There was very little time for the new points that you brought up.”
A few weeks later, she made another remark, “The repetition in the preaching is too much.” After this I noticed the frown on her face each time I preached. This lady eventually stopped coming to church. She did not realize that I was preaching to people who come to church one week and didn’t come the next week. I virtually had a new crowd every week.
Have you removed the log in your own eye? Why are you concentrating so hard on the speck in the pastor’s eye? Familiarity has made you critical. Democracy in its essential nature, calls on us to evaluate our leaders constantly. This is what enables us to vote for the right person. Unfortunately, many are deceived when they think that the same practice of evaluation must be brought into the church