We rationalize away our guilt but not that of others, and our double standard itself renders our own behavior inexcusable (compare 6:22-23; Rom 2:1-3). A splinter or wood chip in a neighbor's eye might render that person blind, but a plank embedded in one's own eye would certainly render one blind. The image is graphic hyperbole: imagine a zealous Christian walking around with a log protruding from his eye (as if one end of it would even fit!), totally ignorant of his impossibly grotesque state. Just as we would not want a blind guide leading us into a pit (Mt 15:14; 23:16), we would not want a blind surgeon operating on our eyes; only one who sees well is competent to heal others' blindness (compare 9:27-31; 20:29-34).

At a Bible study Joe Bayly once met a former Nazi, a participant in the Holocaust, who complained that had missed a promotion in the army because he objected to social dancing. Bayly remarked tongue in cheek that "Christians were the same everywhere-they weren't afraid to speak out, even against Hitler, when it came to social dancing." Likewise, some conservative Christians who are quick to judge those who do not uphold the Bible's authority have spent little time in personal study of the Bible themselves. If Jesus minced no words with those blinded by religious tradition in his day, we who claim devotion to his cause must beware lest we share more in common with them than with him.