Instead of keeping our eye ever on others, looking for faults and mistakes in them, we are to look to our own example, lest something we do may hurt their lives, or cause them to do wrong. We easily get into the habit of overlooking our own faults, while our life is full of inconsistencies which do irreparable harm to the cause of Christ, and to the lives of His people. We dash at our neighbour’s eye to pull out some little mote we imagine we seen in it, while at the same time we have a great beam in our own eye which sadly disfigures us.
The first duty of every Christian is to make sure that he lays no stumbling blocks in others’ way. A prominent man said: “I am fond of wine, and I believe I could drink moderately without danger to myself, but I never touch any kind of wine. I might set the example for some who could not drink moderately without becoming drunkards. My liberty would thus become a stumbling block to others.”