Here is a law of human nature: People project their motives onto everyone else around them, whether they are evil or not. In a parable, Jesus spoke the cryptic phrase: “Is thine eye evil, because I am good?” (Matthew 20:15) What he was referring to was the fact that people assume that the actions of others are motivated by the same motives by which they are actuated. A dishonest person assumes everyone is dishonest with them. A liar assumes everyone else is lying. A drunk assumes that everyone who drinks does so because they are addicted. A person who lusts after others assumes everyone else does, too. A person who has tried but failed to be selfless assumes anyone who claims to be selfless is lying. A person who thinks they are pious will venomously attack a person who demonstrates objectively greater piety. Those who are good, on the other hand, will project their good motives onto others. They will consistently be taken advantage of and negatively surprised by the evil in the hearts of men, when their assumptions prove poor. Inspecting your assumptions of the motives of others is one of the best ways to see what we typically can’t see about ourselves.
This brings to mind the story of a father and his confused son. A father notices his two-year-old son has begun tearing up books when left unattended. The father reprimands the child with increasing force with each repetition of the book ripping commensurate with the son’s presumed understanding that it is wrong to tear up books. One evening, as the father is concluding his first venture into a new book, he searches for some piece of paper to mark his place. Seeing a scrap, he reaches for it and tears a section off. The son runs over to the father, wide eyed, and says “Daddy broke it! Book!” In the son’s eyes, the father has just broken his own commandment not to rip up books. The father does not feel in the least bit hypocritical, knowing that the scrap piece of paper was already headed for the trash bin, and that it was not related to the bound papers making up the book. Considering it a simple thing to understand, he tries to explain it to his son. “This is just a piece of paper. Daddy didn’t break the book.” “Daddy naughty! Book broke!” No matter what the father tries, the son just doesn’t understand. Whether it is caused by a limited capacity to understand or simply a lack of teaching is irrelevant. The son simply cannot not see his father’s righteous actions as anything but naughty.
Perhaps this is what Jesus meant when he taught that we need to remove the beam in our eye before removing the speck in another’s eye. It is interesting that he used the word “eye,” which means awareness. Many times, what we most hate in another is actually what it makes us see in ourselves.
Our tendency to project our awareness onto others is one reason why we should exercise extreme caution when we judge others.
Isaiah described that the Messiah would have “no beauty that we should desire him.” (Isaiah 53:2) He would be “despised” and without esteem (see Isaiah 53:3). He would be considered “stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted.” (Isaiah 53:4)
During his mortal ministry, the Lord Jesus received criticism from the Pharisees because he and his disciples did not fast. The Pharisees expected him to follow their understanding of what God expected, but the Lord was following a higher set of instructions. Similarly, he lamented how the Pharisees criticized John for not drinking, and Jesus for drinking (see Matthew 11:18-19).
One such example of this is found when the Pharisees pointed out to Jesus that his disciples were breaking the law of Moses by eating the wheat as they walked through the field on the Sabbath. The Lord provided a higher order set of truth:
3 But he said unto them, Have ye not read what David did, when he was an hungered, and they that were with him;
4 How he entered into the house of God, and did eat the shewbread, which was not lawful for him to eat, neither for them which were with him, but only for the priests?
5 Or have ye not read in the law, how that on the sabbath days the priests in the temple profane the sabbath, and are blameless?
6 But I say unto you, That in this place is one greater than the temple.
7 But if ye had known what this meaneth, I will have mercy, and not sacrifice, ye would not have condemned the guiltless.
8 For the Son of man is Lord even of the sabbath day. (Matthew 12)
Note the Lord’s comment: “if ye had known what this meaneth...ye would not have condemned the guiltless.” It is too easy for us to condemn those who may know more than we do.
While no one will have as much light as the Lord does, the pattern still holds at lesser levels of light.
It is quite dangerous to criticize other people. Since it isn’t easy to tell who has more light than you on a topic, you should always approach any difference in viewpoint carefully. In seeking to correct, you may actually find someone who knows more about something than you!
Because truth is many-dimensional, it is difficult if not impossible to produce an absolute ranking of people in terms of light and truth (though God can and does do this, see Abraham 3:19). For a simple example, consider that one person might be less patient than you, but you might be more willing to give to the poor. It turns out that where someone is in terms of truth is a complicated question, because that progress would need to be measured across every dimension. Luckily, we need not worry about that because our concern is in identifying specific truths along a specific dimension to recognize either an opportunity to impart to others, or acquire for ourselves, something more advanced.