The first principle that the Lord here lays down is the necessity of a man himself seeing in order to lead others aright. This has been constantly lost sight of in Christendom. It was not in the same way necessary to priesthood in Israel, though there were duties of a priest which needed discernment, to judge between clean and unclean. Still their function lay in mere outward things, which required no spiritual. power. But it is not so in Christianity, though there are moral principles—first principles of everyday life—which are unchangeable. Yet as a whole, Christianity does suppose a new nature and the Spirit of God; and he who has not that nature and the power of the Spirit is incapable of rightly helping others. Now ministry demands this, even in the gospel. There are varying states; and unless a man is capacitated by his own personal faith as well as by the word of God, he will misapply scripture. But it is still clearer in the instruction and guidance practically of believers. He who is called to help them on must necessarily be taught of God, not in mind only but in heart and conscience, well and thoroughly furnished in scripture, so as rightly to divide the word of truth. The blind therefore cannot lead the blind. Neither is it Christianity that the seeing should lead the blind. The trim principle of our calling is, that the seeing should lead the seeing—the very reverse of the blind leading the blind.
Although every believer is supposed to see, yet he may not see clearly. He has the capacity, but may not yet have been exercised in using it. But when the truth has been brought clearly out, he is able to see it without more ado, and, it may be, as distinctly as he who had taught it. Thus that which he receives (whatever the means employed) stands on the word of God and not on the authority, either of church or of teacher. If the teacher were removed or went astray, still he sees the truth for himself in the light of God.
Thus it remains true that the seeing, whom God has qualified to lead on others, teach the seeing who have light enough from God to follow, and who know that they are not following man but God, in that they intelligently follow those who are taught of God, and who lead them according to His word, that which commends itself by the Holy Spirit to the conscience. So far is ministry therefore from being incompatible with Christianity, that it is characteristic of it. Strictly speaking, it was not a distinctive feature of Judaism. They had priests to transact their religious business for them; but Christians have ministry in order to guide and cheer them on, and strengthen them by God's grace, in doing that which pertains to the whole body of which ministers are but a part. “Can the blind lead the blind? Shall they not both fall into the ditch?” This is precisely what Christendom, by confounding Christianity with Judaism, is falling into rapidly. Some take the side of infidelity, some of superstition. But they both fall into the ditch, on the one side or the other.
On the other hand, “the disciple is not above his master.” Our portion is according to Christ. Christ was despised and so are we. Christ was persecuted, and so must the disciple be content to be. He has Christ's portion: if above, so upon earth. “Every one that is perfect shall be as his master.”
Then there is another danger, and that is of censoriousness. The habit of always seeing faults in others is exceedingly to be deprecated and watched against. “And why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brother's eye?” What is the true root of it? Invariably, where there is the habit of beholding faults in others, there is an overlooking of our own. Why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brother's eye, but perceivest not the beam that is in thine own eye?” In that state of things we cannot help others: we must have our own evil dealt with first. “Either how canst thou say to thy brother, Brother, let me pull out the mote that is in thine eye” (love would meet another's want: self is blind and busy, forgets its own faults, but can be zealous in correcting others for its own glory)— “when thou thyself beholdest not the beam that is in thine own eye?” Our own fault, unjudged, always obstructs our affording real aid to another. Whereas, where we have judged ourselves, it is not only that we can see more clearly, but we can enter upon the work more humbly and lovingly. It is this that makes a man spiritual. Nothing but self-judgment can ever do it, coupled with the sense of the Lord's great grace and holiness, which is the crown of self-judgment, by the Spirit's power. But it is only the sense of the Savior's grace and regard for His holiness, which produces self-judgment; as on the other hand, the exercise of self-judgment increases our sense of that grace, and keeps us bright in it, instead of letting ourselves be lowered to the level of surrounding circumstances, and the state to which the allowance of flesh would ever reduce us. The Lord speaks very severely of such— “Thou hypocrite!” and I believe censoriousness as a rule does tend directly to hypocrisy. It leads persons to assume a spirituality which they do not possess; and is this truthful? A person who is continually commenting on others, you may therefore set down as more or less hypocritical in pretending to a holiness which is certainly beyond their measure. Such is the Lord's judgment; and you may be sure that the word which He has spoken, will so decide at the fast day. People forget that there is no way of pretending to spirituality more cheap and more imposing on thoughtless minds than this readiness to speak of the faults of others; but there is scarcely anything that the Lord Jesus more sternly refuses and condemns. “Thou hypocrite cast out first the beam out of thine own eye, and then shalt thou see clearly to pull out the mote that is in thy brother's eye.”
Then He shows how clearly it is a question of nature. “A good tree bringeth not forth corrupt fruit, neither doth a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit.” You cannot change the nature. “Every tree is known by its own fruit; for of thorns men do not gather figs, nor of a bramble bush gather they grapes.” The Lord did not as yet show the action of two natures, and the way in which the fruits of the new creation might be hindered by the allowance of the old. He simply points out the fact that there are two natures, but not their co-existence in the same person, which is the matter of fact even in the real believer. “Every tree is known by its own fruit.” This is peculiar to Luke—I mean the putting it in so strong a manner. Matthew says, “By their fruits ye shall know them.” Luke makes it more comprehensive and emphatic. “Every tree is known by its own fruit.” “A good man out of the good treasure of his heart bringeth forth that which is good; and an evil man out of the evil treasure of his heart bringeth forth that which is evil: for out of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaketh.” This is another addition of Luke's in this place. Our words are very weighty in the sight of God, as Matthew reveals in chapter 12 of his gospel, quite in a different connection “By thy words thou shalt be justified, and by thy words thou shalt be condemned.” He had in view particularly the great dispensational change when the Jews should be cut off, not only for speaking against the Son of man, but for blaspheming against the Holy Ghost—the sin that cannot be forgiven, into which also the Jews fell. They rejected not only the humbled Lord Jesus, the Son of man, but they refused the Holy Ghost's testimony to Him when He was glorified. They rejected every evidence that God gave them, and all advance in the ways of God was utterly loathsome to them. The consequence was that they broke out in violent rejection, according to their own evil, of God's good things. “Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh.” Their mouth spoke, and they shall give account thereof in the day of judgment, even as men generally shall; of every idle word they shall give account. The Jews have thus lost their place for the time, and God has brought in a new thing.
But Luke presents the matter far more as a moral principle. It is true of every man, that out of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaketh: and this is an important test for the state of our souls. Our lips betray the condition of our heart—of our affections. Then there is another thing. If we own Christ to be Lord in word, how come we not to do what He says? The very saying that He is Lord implies the obligation of subjection to Him. “Why call ye me Lord, Lord; and do not the things which I say? Whosoever cometh to me, and heareth my sayings, and doeth them, I will shew you to whom he is like. He is like a man which built a house, and digged deep, and laid the foundation on a rock.” Nothing could shake that house. “And when the flood arose, the stream beat vehemently upon that house.” But in vain: when the flood arose, it could not be shaken; “for it was founded upon a rock.” The heeding the words of Christ is that which survives every shock of the adversary. He who proves his faith thus in his obedience shall never be moved nor ashamed. “But he that heareth and doeth not” —which is precisely what has characterized Christendom as Judaism then and since— “is like a man that, without a foundation, built a house upon the earth, against which the stream did beat vehemently, and immediately it fell; and the ruin of that house was great.” So it shall be. The heaviest blow of the Lord returning in glory will fall not upon pagans who have never heard, but upon the baptized who have heard and not obeyed the gospel.
Moralizing for others, or bare unfruitful hearing even of Christ's words, is but adding to one's own condemnation. Nothing can be substituted for real obedience of heart. Christ was the obedient as well as the dependent Man, the bright moral contrast of the first man; and such must be and are those that are His. In all respects the discourse supposes and insists on a reproduction of His character in His disciples. It is not only promise come and fulfilled in Christ, but the manifestation of God in Him, and this now forming the disciples who are thus morally and actually distinguished from the nation.