I came across a quote on social media last week and I think you will likely agree with it. If your reading of the Bible leads you to scrutinize other people more than you scrutinize yourself, it cautioned, you’re reading the Bible wrong.  

Jesus taught the same lesson long before Facebook was around, or at least he tried to, when he called out the hypocrisy of a man who would point at the speck in his neighbour’s eye while ignoring the log in his own. Remove the log from your own eye first, he said, and then you might be clear-sighted enough to help your neighbour.  

But too often we fall into the habit of reading Scripture through self-shaped spectacles that twist the living word of God into an echo of our own thoughts. Into a comfortable message that we can live with. A message that fits with our sense of the world and our sense of ourselves. And when we do so, many of us end up ignoring issues that God would never ignore, and ignoring the people that God most wants us to honour and protect. 

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