This Sunday's Text

“Do not judge others, and you will not be judged. 2 For you will be treated as you treat others.* The standard you use in judging is the standard by which you will be judged.*
3 “And why worry about a speck in your friend’s eye* when you have a log in your own? 4 How can you think of saying to your friend,* ‘Let me help you get rid of that speck in your eye,’ when you can’t see past the log in your own eye? 5 Hypocrite! First get rid of the log in your own eye; then you will see well enough to deal with the speck in your friend’s eye.
6 “Don’t waste what is holy on people who are unholy.* Don’t throw your pearls to pigs! They will trample the pearls, then turn and attack you.

New Living Translation. 2nd ed. Mt 7:1-6

"Don’t preach just to keep from being preached to. For the same sermon you preach will be applied to you, and the stuff you dish out to others will be dished up to you. Why examine the splinter in your brother’s eye, and take no notice of the plank in your own eye? Or how can you say to your brother, ‘Bud, hold still while I pick that splinter out of your eye,’ when there is a plank in yours? Listen, you phony, first pull the plank from your eye and then you’ll be able to see better to get the splinter out of your brother’s eye.

"‘Don’t throw your valuables to the dogs,
And don’t spread your pearls before the hogs;
Or they will trample them under their feet
And even turn and bite you.’
- Clarence Jordan, Matthew, The Cotton Patch Gospels

1-5 "Don't pick on people, jump on their failures, criticize their faults— unless, of course, you want the same treatment. That critical spirit has a way of boomeranging. It's easy to see a smudge on your neighbor's face and be oblivious to the ugly sneer on your own. Do you have the nerve to say, 'Let me wash your face for you,' when your own face is distorted by contempt? It's this whole traveling road-show mentality all over again, playing a holier-than-thou part instead of just living your part. Wipe that ugly sneer off your own face, and you might be fit to offer a washcloth to your neighbor.

6"Don't be flip with the sacred. Banter and silliness give no honor to God. Don't reduce holy mysteries to slogans. In trying to be relevant, you're only being cute and inviting sacrilege. The Message - Eugene Peterson

I read passages like this and it causes me to love Jesus more. There's such a disconnect between many of those who are called Christians and Jesus.