Ten Minute Bible Talks Devotional Bible Study - So, About That Plank in Your Eye... | The Gospels | Matthew 7:1–6

Episode Date: October 6, 2026

Why are we so quick to see other people’s problems? What does Jesus mean when he tells us not to judge? And what should we do with the “plank” in our own eye? In today’s episode, Tanya explains how Matthew 7:1–6 calls us to stop comparing ourselves to others and let Jesus deal with what’s broken in us. Want to become a more consistent Bible reader? Download our free Ten Minute Bible Guide and start building a simple, sustainable habit of meeting with God through his word. Grab your guide here. Read the Bible with us! This year, we’re exploring the Gospels—Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John—and it's never too late to join! Download your reading plan now. Your support makes TMBT possible. Ten Minute Bible Talks is a crowd-funded project. Join the TMBTeam to reach more people with the Bible. Give now. Like this content? Make sure to leave us a rating and share it so that others can find it, too. Use #asktmbt to connect with us, ask questions, and suggest topics. We'd love to hear from you! To learn more, visit our website and follow us on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter @TenMinuteBibleTalks. Don't forget to subscribe to the TMBT Newsletter here. Passage: Matthew 7:1–6

Welcome to 10-minute Bible Talks, where we connect the Bible to your life. In the time it takes to get to work. I'm Tanya Wilmuth. Adventure by nature can be both awesome and unpredictable. When I got back from a trip to Colorado this summer, my Instagram reels were feeding me stories of hikers. And I read a story about a group of hikers in Montana that had one of the most bizarre wilderness experiences I've ever heard. They were three young men, they were experienced hikers, and they said, set out for a perfect weather day in July. It was apparently one of those made for hiking,

and they had a goal to climb Granite Peak, Montana's highest point at about 12,800 feet. Their route was unpredictable, but the day was made for it. They were set to cross an exposed stretch known as the froze-to-death plateau, and this space is notorious for unpredictable storms for a fast-moving weather that gets cold really fast and dropping to freezing temperatures, even in the summer. But none of those things that they had prepared for were the actual problem. The group was almost to the top when David, a wound care nurse from Billings, slid and fell. Not off the side of the mountain, not down a ravine, not even a few dozen feet, just a shortfall. But it was a fall that would dramatically change the way the rest of the day unfolded.

Unbeknownst to the other hikers, but now very obvious to David, he had fallen on his own trekking pole. And the still tip had gone in just under his left arm, in through the front of his chest, and out through his back. I mean, imagine standing up, looking at yourself and realizing that you have a trekking pole sticking through your chest. His friends had one of those garment devices that you can use anywhere via satellite to call for help. So naturally, there was some discussion about doing just that. But David, drawing on his own experience in wound care, was able to do a little self-evaluation. The bleeding was minimal, the pain was minimal. Not enough he decided to justify a helicopter rescue and the expense involved.

So instead, they radioed the search and rescue team on the ground. They explained that they would make their own way down the mountain, and they'd drive straight to the hospital once they reached the car at the trailhead. So I'm sure a trekking pole sticking through someone's chest cavity can be quite alarming, especially to the other hikers coming up the trail. So the group made their way down carefully. one hiker went ahead to warn people what they were about to see. Imagine how that conversation went. And another stayed close behind David to make sure everyone got down safely.

Then 10 miles of downhill trekking later, they reached the car at the trailhead and they drove straight to the hospital so the pole could be safely removed. Now David says this was the only time that he was really in pain. It's when the doctor finally took the pole out. It's a bizarre story. A strange example of what can happen in the mountains, albeit very strange. But it's also a picture of something that can't be ignored. The pole had to come out and removing it was going to be more painful than anything else. Now just think about it, having to walk ahead and warm people, hey, my friend is coming and there's a pole sticking out of his chest and back. That shows just how shocking and obvious David situation was to everyone who would

see him. And that contrast, the pain that was minor and manageable all the way down the mountain, against the pain of finally removing what was impaling him is an outward picture of something that we experience internally in our own lives. Jesus talks about this in the sermon on the mount as he's preaching to his disciples and announcing the coming of a new kingdom. In this passage, Jesus uses two strange, almost shocking illustrations to show us about life in his new kingdom. He uses an illustration of a plank stuck in someone's eye

and an illustration of holy things thrown to dogs and pigs. Now, this new kingdom is going to be different. It's not going to be a moralistic society where people look around to see how well they're doing compared to everyone else. It is a kingdom where Jesus is both perfect judge and perfect savior. So let's dig into Matthew chapter 7 verses 1 through 6 as we examine our own view of moralism against the gospel. And as we hear the good news that Jesus was in.

announcing to the world. So first, I'm going to read the scripture about the plank stuck in the eye. It says, don't judge people and you won't be judged yourself. You'll be judged, you see, by the judgment you use to judge others. You'll be measured by the measuring rod you use to measure others. Why do you stare at the splinter in your neighbor's eye, but ignore the plank in your own? How can you say to your neighbor, here, let me get that splinter out of your eye when you've got a plank in your own? You're just play acting. Okay. This is where I, always have to stop when I'm reading this because it's so, you know, convicting, like, yes, I see other people's problems. I'm not seeing your own. But then this, you're just play

acting. He says, first, take the plank out of your own eye, and you'll see clearly enough to take the splinter out of your neighbor's eye. Play acting there is the word for hypocrite, which just literally means like an actor dressed up to perform a part. Now, we can reasonably assume that Jesus had a specific audience in mind when he was preaching. Back in chapter five, he named them the scribes and the Pharisees. But we can also reasonably assume that this is here for us. Among the group, there was a tendency to create a moral climate where everyone is kind of watching everyone else,

checking to see if they're keeping the standards up. And we see this a lot in the Gospels when we read about the Pharisees. But Jesus is turning that kind of moralistic comparison upside down in the best ways. He's saying, stop looking around at people you think are doing worse than you so that you can feel better about yourself and start looking at me. Their problems might be obvious to you, but if you're doing that, you're completely unaware of your own. And Jesus, the perfect savior, is here to solve the real problem.

Now, we see this kind of moral math that work around us in our culture today, too, right? The problem is that moral math is inconsistent. Let me give you just an example that I find really interesting. There was a Pew survey done on things that people in different countries thought were immoral. And in the U.S., there were about 30% of Americans who considered gambling a sin, and over 80% of Americans who considered having an extramarital affair as a sin. But in France, for instance, those numbers are almost completely turned upside down. In France, less than half of adults consider having an affair morally unacceptable, but many of them, more than half of them consider gambling to be a problem. So Jesus is warning against all comparative

judgment. He doesn't mean that we shouldn't have values and we shouldn't have high standards of behavior. But the temptation to look down on each other for moral failure is a temptation to play God. And when we do that, we become hypocrites or as the verse says, play actors, which literally means wearing a mask as a disguise. In Jesus' example, judgment and moralistic society just bounces right back. The one who's focused on sorting out everyone else's problems will find their own growing into the size of a plank, while the splinter they were so focused on and someone else actually stays what it was. Jesus is saying that those who are most likely to tell others what to do are the ones who should take the longest look in the mirror.

And then what about that second illustration, where Jesus says, don't give holy things to dogs. Don't throw your pearls to pigs. If you do, they'll train. trample them under their feet and then turn around and attack you. I mean, what is that all about? At first, this sounds like Jesus is telling us followers to have categories for where and with whom they will share his good news, seemingly a judgment call. But look closer and we see a deeper meaning. Within the Jewish community of Jesus Day, dogs was a derogatory term for Gentiles, and

pigs were animals that only Gentiles kept. Jesus seems to be warning his followers not to try to explain the meaning and life of the kingdom to people who won't understand the Jewish world in which it makes sense. That fits with what Jesus says later in Matthew and what Paul writes in Romans 15, that the early mission of the gospel was to the Jews first. For now, the disciples are told to treasure the gospel and guard it, the way priests cared for holy things in the temple. But after the crucifixion and resurrection, this all changes. The gospel goes out to the corners of the earth. What hasn't changed for us today is this. We should still regard the gospel, the good news that Jesus gave us about his kingdom

as sacred and beautiful, something to be treasured and valued. The gospel is worth far more than a set of inconsistent morals that we can't even live up to ourselves. It's the good news that Jesus alone lived a perfect life. And Jesus lived that life in our place. And Jesus invites us into life with him, where our worth isn't measured by how we compare to the people around us. And our calling isn't to fix them, but to shepherd them, to love them, and guide them closer to our true king. When are you tempted to compare your values and your standards with someone else? And how does that impact your relationship with them?

How does it impact your relationship with Jesus? Think back to David's friends on the mountain. They didn't stand over him pointing out, what he should have done differently. They didn't stop to debate whose fault it was. One walked ahead to warn others, one stayed close behind, and together they got their friends safely down the mountain to the help he needed. The posture that Jesus calls us into is not to be judges pointing out the splinter in someone else's eye, but fellow travelers who've had our own plank removed, walking alongside others toward the king, who alone can take out what's harming us.