Recognize That We All Have Blind Spots

Chapter 2
Recognize That We All Have Blind Spots

The first chapter of Paul’s magisterial letter to the Romans describes what happened to the human race as a direct result of our rejection of God. We fell into idolatry, immorality, perversion, and every kind of fleshly sin. That chapter ends with these devastating words:

Furthermore, just as they did not think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God, so God gave them over to a depraved mind, so that they do what ought not to be done. They have become filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed and depravity. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit and malice. They are gossips, slanderers, God-haters, insolent, arrogant and boastful; they invent ways of doing evil; they disobey their parents; they have no understanding, no fidelity, no love, no mercy. Although they know God’s righteous decree that those who do such things deserve death, they not only continue to do these very things but also approve of those who practice them.

Romans 1:28-32

How wicked people can be. How ugly and cruel. How filthy and despicable. Yes, “they” are really bad!

But that’s not all that Paul had to say. Instead, look at his very next words—remembering as you do that in the original letter to the Romans there were no chapter divisions, so there was no break or pause between Romans 1:32 (the last verse of chapter 1) and Romans 2:1 (the first verse of chapter 2):

You, therefore, have no excuse, you who pass judgment on someone else, for at whatever point you judge another, you are condemning yourself, because you who pass judgment do the same things.

Romans 2:1

So, it isn’t just “they” who are guilty; “we” are guilty too! We get angry with drivers who cut us off on the road, honking our horn and glaring at them. They need to pay attention! But when we “accidentally” move into someone else’s lane, we’re angry with that driver for honking his or her horn at us. Give me a break! we think. I didn’t do it intentionally. How easy it is to justify our own failings while condemning others for those very same failings.

About ten years ago, some of my friends and I were talking with a colleague who was a professional fitness trainer and who offered to run us through some workouts one hour a week. The workouts were intense, and by the end we could barely move. As we were sitting or lying on the ground, he began to talk to us about the importance of healthy eating, reminding us that “abs begin in the kitchen.”

I agreed with what he was saying, of course, but then I proceeded to explain that, given my ministry schedule, especially my constant traveling throughout America and abroad, I really couldn’t make many changes. Unhealthy eating was a necessary way of life, and no one could really argue with what I said. I made a good case!

A few days later, after working out with another colleague, the same conversation came up. This time, he was the one to explain why, given the intensive ministry schedule he and his wife kept, they really couldn’t make the needed changes in their lives to eat more healthily. As he listed his reasons, I said to myself, Those are the worst excuses I’ve ever heard. If you want to make changes, you can do it.

In a flash, I realized my complete hypocrisy. My excuses were weighty and compelling and powerful. His excuses were weak and wimpy and woeful. I was justified in eating poorly. He was not. What a joke! I silently rebuked myself on the spot.

Merging Boldness with Humility

Yet isn’t this what we often do, seeing the faults of others much more easily than we see our own? We can identify the flaws in another person’s arguments while perceiving our own arguments as airtight. We can justify (or at the least, explain) the big mistakes we have made while condemning others for much more trivial offenses. That’s why Jesus famously said,

Do not judge, or you too will be judged. For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.

Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye? How can you say to your brother, “Let me take the speck out of your eye,” when all the time there is a plank in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye.

Matthew 7:1-5

But notice something carefully here. We should help remove the speck from our brother’s eye. We should make good and sound judgments, as the Lord said in John 7:24: “Stop judging by mere appearances, but instead judge correctly.” Paul even wrote, “The person with the Spirit makes judgments about all things, but such a person is not subject to merely human judgments” (1 Corinthians 2:15). Yet Paul also wrote this: “But if we were more discerning with regard to ourselves, we would not come under such judgment” (1 Corinthians 11:31). Here, he was referring to some of the Corinthians who had died and others who were sick because they had partaken of the Lord’s Supper in an unworthy manner.

So, yes, we are to make judgments. But we must first judge ourselves, and then we must judge rightly, not judging superficially or by mere outward appearances, not judging hypocritically, and not condemning. And this means that we must recognize our own blind spots.

We might be right in the stands we take, but not in the way we take them. We might be right in our positions, but wrong in our personalities. Or we might rightly oppose same-sex “marriage,” while failing to address the problem of no-fault divorce in the Church.

This doesn’t mean that we retreat from the front lines of the culture wars because of our own weaknesses and failings. But it does mean that we get on our faces first, to repent of our sins first. It does mean that we do some serious soul-searching, asking God to shine His holy light on our lives. It does mean that we don’t simply dismiss the concerns of our critics just because they are on the wrong side of a larger issue. It does mean that we merge boldness with humility, and a clear voice with a listening ear. It does mean that we become aware of our own blind spots.

…

Content taken from Hearts of Compassion, Backbones of Steel: How to Discuss Controversial Topics with Love and Kindness by Michael L. Brown ©2024. Used by permission of Chosen Books, a division of Baker Publishing Group.