See clearly

Before getting to the fourth and final part of "Beware of dogs..."

I had an unrelated thought today about Jesus' words about specks of dust and planks in our eyes.

Luke 6:41-42
41 And why do you look at the speck in your brother's eye, but do not perceive the plank in your own eye? 42 Or how can you say to your brother, 'Brother, let me remove the speck that is in your eye,' when you yourself do not see the plank that is in your own eye? Hypocrite! First remove the plank from your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck that is in your brother's eye.

One thing that has really helped me to grow in grace is understanding more and more what I am apart from grace. When I'm left to my flesh... to my own resources... things are never what they would be if I were walking according to the Spirit by the grace of God. And in all this, I've realized more and more that the only thing that ever truly causes me to walk in the Spirit and bear the fruit of the Spirit... is God's grace and His grace alone.

I've realized that when I have a plank in my eye, the only thing that clears it up and removes the plank is pure grace. This in turn gives me much more confidence that it's only going to be pure grace that will remove the speck in other people's eyes.

In other words, it's ONLY after I've dealt with my own planks, and have seen that it's only grace that removes the planks, that I see clearly that it's only grace that will help others with their own specks.