Making allowance for others' faults

Ephesians 4:2 (NLT) (Version 2)

Be humble and gentle.  Be patient with each other, making allowance for each other's faults because of your love. 

I was driving one day and someone in traffic did something that irritated me.  As I was “gnawing” on my irritation, someone on a radio program I was listening to made a profound statement, “Give him some slack”.  I don’t know what the radio person was referring to, but that imagery “give some slack” hit home to me.  My irritation/anger immediately dissipated. 

To give some slack is “slang” terminology for making an allowance for (someone) or simply to give them a break.  That is what Ephesians 4:2 is teaching.  Give others a break because of your love for them.  May your personality be so much like Christ’s—humble and gentle, as He described Himself in Matthew 11:29---that you have no problem cutting some slack, giving a break, making allowances for others’ faults. 

If you have a problem with someone’s behavior, look within yourself, you might have the same problem.  Years ago I was really bothered by someone’s arrogant behavior.  I was talking about this with a Christian couple whose wisdom I respected greatly.  It was the woman, bless her heart, who told me, “Mike, do you realize that you have such a problem with arrogance because you might have the same problem too!”  Talk about being floored at her candor, yet deep down I knew that she was right.  Jesus referred to this in Matthew 7:3-5 when He said, “Why do you see the speck that is in your brother’s eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye? Or how can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye’, when there is the log in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother’s eye”.

I was judging a brother about his sin when I had failed to see the same sin in my own life.  Initially I hated to see this pointed out in my own life, but it forced me to apply humility to recognize my own sinfulness before I could start to make allowances for someone else’s sin.  Someone once said that once you recognize yourself as the “greatest sinner you know”, that you are saved only by God’s great mercy and grace, and that you are no holier than anyone else, then you are free to move forward in the grace and patience of Christ to resolve relational issues with others.

So, how are you doing in the “speck and log” business?  Do you focus on the mistakes of others while ignoring your own failures?  Do you fail to make allowances for others while overlooking your own faults?  Do you criticize others (especially those in your own family) while failing to recognize your own critical personality?  What “logs” in your eye—in your life--do you know that the Lord wants you to remove?  Pray for forgiveness and for help to apply the teaching both from Ephesians 4:3 and Matthew 7:3-5.  And be sure to give others “some slack”.