What are the holy things? What are the pearls? For a follower of Jesus, nothing is more precious than the gospel of Jesus Christ. The fundamental idea in the word holy, as Ed Welch traces it back through Leviticus, is being set apart for God. Welch points to Leviticus...
There is a counterfeit of discernment that is really just a critical spirit wearing a halo. Jesus warned about it in the verses just before this one. People take a fault finding heart, baptize it, and call it discernment. They say they have discernment, but notice...
If you only heard last week’s sermon on the speck and the plank, you might have walked away thinking the whole goal of the Christian life is to never make a judgment about anything. Matthew 7:6 exists to keep you out of that ditch. Jesus has just told us not to...
Step back and see the whole passage as one unit. Jesus forbids the critical heart, warns that our measure returns to us, and then commands us to deal with our log so we can gently help our brother. But it ends in a problem we cannot solve. The man with the log is...
When God graciously removes the log from your eye, how will you then approach your brother? You will come gently, because that is who God has been to you. Galatians 6:1 gives us the pattern: restore, in a spirit of gentleness, while keeping watch on yourself. The same...
