One of the most powerful images in the Bible is that of the
plumb line. It is a very graphic illustration of how reality can
break in on us and shatter our illusions. You can construct a
house, and as far as you can tell, it may appear to be absolutely
straight. Yet, if you take a long string with a lead weight tied
to the end of it and hang it beside one of the walls, you may
discover that the whole structure is crooked. Before you use the
plumb line, it doesn't look lopsided, because, relative to
itself, it isn't. All of the walls may be parallel to one
another. But when an objective measure is used to determine
whether the structure is really straight, reality breaks in.
That's how it is with us. Our lives appear to us to be
straight. We think we are walking in obedience to the Lord.
Everything seems to line up, and our lives may even seem to line
up with those of our friends. But our friends are only a
relative measure. Without even realizing it, we may all be
crooked in the eyes of God. We desperately need a plumb line, or
an outside standard, by which we can see whether we really
measure up.
It is possible to be completely off base and not even
realize it. As Jeremiah expresses, it, "the heart is deceitful
above all else and desperately sick. Who can know it?" Only God
can know it. He says, in the next verse, Jeremiah 17:10, "I, the
Lord, search the heart, I test the mind." It is God Himself who
acts as a plumbline, or as a standard of comparison.
If we wish to know whether we are off base, we must ask God
to reveal it to us. There is no other way. Unless, in His
mercy, He grants to us a revelation of our evil, we will remain
trapped in the crookedness of our ways. In Revelation 3:18, the
people at the church at Laodicia were warned to buy eyesalve to
anoint their eyes. This illustration applies to every one of us.
Our eyes need to be opened so that we may see that we have been
walking in selfishness and disobedience, without even realizing
it.
We must take these matters into account every moment of our
waking lives, especially when people criticize us. When I first
learned about these truths in 1972, I made a conscious decision
to believe any criticism that anybody ever had about me, no
matter how unfounded it seemed to me at first. I felt that it
was necessary to do this, because the Bible specifically
indicates that we are totally blind to our own weaknesses. In
our hearts and minds, we blame others when we ourselves are to
blame. As Jesus said, we must stop worrying about the speck in
the other person's eye, and begin to deal with the log in our
own.
When I made first made this decision, the results were very
surprising to me. People would accuse me of things that seemed
completely crazy. But I determined that I would take such people
seriously and listen to them. I chose to believe them because of
what the Bible says about our own blindness about ourselves, even
though at first it seemed like what they were saying was coming
from way out of left field. But I gradually began to discover
that I was wrong and my critics were right. This eventually led
to a great deal of soul-searching and repentance before God.
There is a sense in which our critics are our best friends,
because they are the ones who can put us on the right track if we
will only listen to them. We can't afford to trust our own
judgment when it comes to such things, because we usually don't
see shortcomings in ourselves; we only see them in others.
If you begin to notice shortcomings in other people, an
alarm bell should immediately begin ringing loudly in your mind.
At the same time that I made the determination to believe my
critics, I also made the decision to be very careful whenever I
thought I noticed weaknesses in others. I made a conscious
decision about this in the light of the fact that the Bible is
inescapably more reliable than our own thoughts. The Scriptures
indicate that whenever we think that someone else has faults, we
probably have the same faults, except that our faults are
probably much, much more serious than they are in others. I knew
that I could not afford to go by my own feelings in this regard.
I made a firm decision that whenever I would begin to think
critically about anyone else, an alarm would immediately be
triggered in my mind, warning me that, rather than trying to
correct the other person, I should be correcting myself, because
it is specifically stated in the Scriptures that I have a log in
my own eye while the other person merely has a speck in his (or
hers). It never seems this way, yet it always is this way. God
has specifically said that this is so. While it has usually
never seemed to me, in my own natural understanding, that this
has been the case, I have known that it must necessarily be so,
because God has, in no uncertain terms, warned me about it, and
He has done so for my own good, that I might avoid destruction.
You can never go wrong with an act of faith of this kind,
because, even if you go too far with it, it is be much better to
err on the side of righteousness than to be in danger of falling
into sin and deception. We must take seriously what God says,
even when we don't see how His word could possibly be true.
And, of course, we must not fall into the trap of thinking
of ourselves as exceptions. Humility requires of us that we not
think of ourselves more highly than anyone else. If we believe
that we are somehow exempt, then we are thinking arrogantly. If
I think myself better than the one with the speck in his eye,
than I begin to place myself in double jeopardy. In doing this,
not only am I in danger of failing to see my own inadequacies,
but I may well be thinking more highly of myself than I should,
which is abhorrent to God.
Zeal for God precludes the possibility of our ever even
entertaining the possibility that we might have the ability to
see our faults or those of others with any kind of objectivity.
God's word says that we are blind to our own evil. We must
therefore accept this as a fact of life, and act accordingly. If
we do so, then God begins to be gracious to us, and helps us to
see our shortcomings, so that we might, through the power of the
Holy Spirit, change our lives so that we can be pleasing unto
Him.
He is the standard. As He begins to reveal Himself to us,
and as we begin to get a glimpse of His holy character, we are
then able to see our own crookedness. He is the measuring rod
described in Ezekiel 40 through 42 and in Revelation 11:1 and
21:15. Collectively, as the Church, we are the temple of God.
He is presently in the process of measuring us. Then, if we come
up short, there must be either repentance or judgment.
In the fifth chapter of Daniel, when Belshazzar was weighed
in the balances, he was found wanting, and he did not repent. He
therefore experienced God's judgment. So it is with us. After
He measures us, or drops the plumb line into our midst, if we do
not turn from evil and cruelty, then judgement is necessary. In
His mercy, He offers us the opportunity for repentance. We can
either take advantage of that opportunity or suffer the
consequences. We cannot depend simply upon the fact that we are
Christian believers, any more than the Jewish people of the first
century could coast along thinking that they were safe because
they were descendants of Abraham. Many will say, "Lord, Lord,
did we not prophesy in Your name, and in Your name cast out
demons, and in Your name perform many miracles?" Yet He will say
to them, "I never knew you; depart from Me, you evildoers."
It is not good enough simply to engage in ministry, even if
it is confirmed with signs and wonders. If we continue as
workers of iniquity, then we must face judgement. This is why,
in His mercy, God presents us with the plumb line. He shows us
His standard. He grants to us an inner revelation of our need
for change, and He appeals to us act accordingly. He does not
want to see us destroyed.
Many people are suspicious of the concept of God's
judgement, because it seems inconsistent with His unconditional
love. But this is only an apparent inconsistency. God puts a
plumb line into our midst in order to save us from judgement. We
bring judgement upon ourselves if we disregard it. The Lord does
not wish harm upon anyone. I love the passage from Ezekiel 18,
in which God states that the wicked one who turns from evil will
live. "Do I have any pleasure in the death of the wicked?" He
asks. Then later, He says, "Cast away from you all your
transgressions which you have committed, and make yourselves a
new heart and a new spirit! For why will you die, O House of
Israel? For I have no pleasure in the death of anyone who dies.
Therefore, repent and live."
Yet, if we continue in disobedience, then we invite God's
displeasure, and we suffer the consequences for our own
wrongdoing. In our perversity, we tend to blame God for the fact
that we have put ourselves in a place where He must judge us. In
other words, we blame Him. Does this sound familiar? It brings
us right back to where we started. We blame others for our own
faults. In the same way, we blame God for bringing judgement
upon us when He has extended His mercy to us by breaking in upon
us with His measuring rod or His plumbline, in order that we
might escape that judgement.
My God grant us the ability to respond to His mercy, and to
turn from all cruelty and wrongdoing, and may He grant to us the
maturity to accept all blame, even when it may not be clear to
us, at least for the moment, that the blame falls upon us. Lord,
help us to give all of our critics the benefit of every doubt, so
that we may be safe, rather than sorry, when judgement falls. We
pray these things in the name of our precious Lord and Savior,
Jesus Christ. Amen.
Richard M. Riss
Union Bible Church, Old Bridge, N.J., September 20, 1992