Seeing Clearly: Devotion for September 15

This dramatic painting, The Parable of the Mote and the Beam, was created by Italian Baroque artist Domenico Fetti.

He spent much of his career in Mantua until a feud with local leaders pushed him to Venice. I can’t help but wonder if that conflict gave him inspiration for this scene from Matthew 7, where Jesus says:

“Do not judge, so that you may not be judged. Why do you see the speck in your neighbor’s eye, but do not notice the log in your own eye?”

The King James Version phrases it memorably: “Why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brother’s eye, but considerest not the beam that is in thine own eye?” And indeed, in Fetti’s work, that mote looks more like a beam!

What if it were a daily practice to take stock of how we are seeing? Our culture rewards criticism—gossip, slander, even casual mockery—as though cutting others down builds us up. Turn on the news, watch a political debate, or even listen at a playground and you’ll hear it. And if we’re honest, we’ll find it in our own conversations too.

So the question is worth asking: How is my sight? Am I quick to spot flaws in others while blind to my own?

Back in 1967, Kenny Rogers and The First Edition released a song with the curious title: Just Dropped In (to See What Condition My Condition Was In). That phrase could be a helpful reminder for us all: every now and then, we need to check in on the condition of our own hearts and lives.

It’s easy—too easy—to obsess over what others are doing while ignoring our own shortcomings. But Jesus calls us not to judgment, but to love. Yes, we are to care deeply for the welfare of our brothers and sisters. But our calling is not to measure them against our standards. Our calling is to extend grace.

I once heard it put this way: imagine God placed a tape recorder around your neck for a year, capturing every word you spoke. At the end of that year, what if he pressed “play”? What condition would your condition be in? Even more sobering—what if God used the very same standard of judgment we use on others to judge us?

Perhaps that’s why Jesus points us back to the beam in our own eye. Not to leave us discouraged, but to open our eyes to a better way—the way of love, humility, and mercy.

Like Kenny said, “Yeah, Yeah, Oh-yeah. What condition is my condition in?”

“Don’t pick on people, jump on their failures, criticize their faults—unless, of course, you want the same treatment. -Luke 6:38 MSG

Featured artwork: Domenico Fetti, The Parable of the Mote and the Beam, 1619