Re:Verse passage – 2 Samuel 12:1-23 (day four)
It was a thinly veiled story…but David took it hook, line, and sinker! He never recognized the point of the story until Nathan sprang the trap…”You are the man!” David had been quick to condemn the rich man in Nathan’s story, but he had completely glossed over his own guilt with Uriah and Bathsheba. Everyone recognized David’s guilt but himself.
Aren’t we like that, often? It is easy for us to condemn others for their jealousy, or their hypocrisy, or their lack of compassion, but we fail to see our own iniquity and sin. Our sinful hearts can so quickly absolve our own motives and actions, while at the same time condemning others for their actions. Christ taught us in the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 7:1-5, Luke 6:41-42) to deal with the log in our own eye before we try to remove the speck in our brother’s eye. Good instruction! Hard to do, but profitable to practice.
If we can practice self-awareness, the action to condemn others can be minimized. This blog reminds me of this quote,
“A HARD HEART MAKES FOR HARD JUDGMENTS; A COMPASSIONATE HEART UNDERSTANDS THE HUMANITY OF THE ONE WE PRESUME TO JUDGE.”~ Joan D. Chittister
If we are so busy condemning others, we don’t have time to self-examine who we are! May God bless us with compassionate hearts!