THE ENEMY INSIDE

Luke 6:39-42

Luk 6:39 He also told them a parable: “Someone who is blind cannot lead another who is blind, can he? Won’t they both fall into a pit?
Luk 6:40 A disciple is not greater than his teacher, but everyone when fully trained will be like his teacher.
Luk 6:41 Why do you find the speck in your brother’s eye, but fail to find the beam of wood in your own?
Luk 6:42 How can you say to your brother, ‘Brother, let me remove the speck from your eye,’ while you yourself can’t find the beam in your own? You hypocrite! First remove the beam from your own eye, and then you can see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye.

the beam we have

You would think that having a beam in your eye would be significant enough distraction that you would want to remove it. It is, but we choose to focus on our brother’s speck. That brother is wrong, and we just have to fix him. The truth is, each of us has enough evil in his heart, and does enough wrong with his hand, that all of us need a Saviour.

Jesus appeals to the poor, oppressed, the mistreated. He tells those disciples to stop focusing on the wrong other people do to them, and concentrate on the beam they have — changing their own hearts, repenting of their own sins. But as long as you choose to focus on some other enemy, the enemy inside just gets bigger and bigger.

LORD, give us the courage to tackle the enemy inside, and the strength to resist being distracted by the enemies outside.