In The Blunder Book, M. Hirsh Goldberg tells of a new clerk in the Illinois House of Representatives who sent out a memo to his colleagues. In it he appealed for accuracy in their written communications. But when the memo was distributed, it had nine errors in grammar, punctuation, and spelling. When the memo fell into the hands of the press, the embarrassed clerk said he couldn't have made a worse blunder if he had tried.

Similar embarrassment is bound to occur whenever Christians expect others to measure up to the high standards of Christ without first examining themselves (Luke 6:42). If our attitude is mixed with pride and self-righteousness, our words will come back to haunt us. What we say may be true, but the way we say it must always be with humility and a sense of our own shortcomings.

We should encourage others to do right. Christians should stir up one another to loving attitudes and actions. But we are all growing in Christ, so we must be neither judgmental nor patronizing. Instead, we should lovingly build up one another. Any other attitude reveals a self-righteous heart.

Lord, may our expectations of others be tempered by an awareness of our own weakness.  —MRD II  — Mart De Haan