Don’t project. Reflect!

Do not judge, or you will be judged. For with the same judgment you pronounce, you will be judged; and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you. Why do you look at the speck in your brother’s eye, but fail to notice the beam in your own eye? How can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ while there is still a beam in your own eye? You hypocrite! First take the beam out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye. (Matthew 7:1–5 Berean Standard Bible)

In this passage, Jesus used a fantastic image to illustrate a common human condition. Could you imagine someone walking around with a beam in their eye? How could someone live in that condition? Yet, it would become even more outrageous when we realized the person can’t see what plagues them. All they can comprehend is the specks in other people’s eyes.

We might think, “Jesus can’t be talking about me, can He? His words must be about someone else!” Yes, He is talking about you. In fact, He is talking about all of us. We all have a log in our eye, and without God’s help we can’t perceive it. If we will allow the Lord to show us our deepest hypocrisies, the ones we don’t even realize are there, it will at first devastate us, but then it will free us. God will replace the beam with Christ.

What is the beam in our eye?

Jesus alluded to an interesting psychological phenomenon. Psychologists call it projection. We project our sins onto others. We discern in them what hides in ourselves. For example, have you ever met a rude person who went around pointing out the rudeness of others? When we encounter someone like that, it confounds us. Can’t they grasp their own rudeness? No, they can’t.

Some say this is a defense mechanism. If I project my sins onto you, I don’t have to face them in myself. It saves me from shame. I diminish others in place of myself. We all do it, but we don’t know we are doing it. The ego’s unseen reality becomes how we interpret reality itself.

“Projections change the world into the replica of one’s own unknown face.”–C.G. Jung

Jesus called our unrealized self the beam in our eye. Carl Jung called it the shadow self. It is the part of us we cannot perceive but comes out without us knowing it. However, our shadow self gives clues to its nature. What sins are we most judgmental about? Jung would say those same sins are in us, maybe in a different form, but there, nonetheless.

There is a profession which puts the hidden self on display more than others. Preaching! Preachers reveal their shadow self readily. What sin does your pastor preach against most? He or she is likely revealing their own struggles. They are railing against their shadow self.

Having preached for over forty years, I understand these things from experience. I speak against self-righteousness often, but guess who my shadow self is…a Pharisee! It took me decades to recognize my own self-righteousness. It was perhaps my greatest struggle with God, yet I spent years not knowing I was at war.

Speaking of Pharisees, they are a perfect example of projection. They were the Torah police, who pointed out other people’s ungodliness. Yet, Jesus called them whitewashed tombs. They looked good on the outside but were dead to God on the inside. They were the most godless of all. The Pharisees should be a stern warning to us. If we condemn other people’s sins, we might be avoiding the absence of God in our own lives.

In election years, the shadow self gets busy. Once you understand projection, you can get out your popcorn and watch the show. One side paints itself as good and the other as evil. If we can only see good in our own party and only evil in the other, welcome to the world of projection. For instance, we view our side as loving and the other side as hateful. We are blind to our party’s hate. It is there. The only difference is they hate different people. It is us and them, and every party has a “them.” It is the nature of politics.

How do we get the beam out of our eye?

First, we realize it is there. Recognizing the beam in your eye can be devastating. This is why we erect barriers to protect ourselves from coming face to face with our hidden self. Others can help us see. They observe the beam in our eye. Sometimes our friends know us better than we know ourselves, but they don’t want trouble. If they told us the truth about ourselves, we might not be their friend anymore. Yet, true friends don’t let friends walk around with a beam in their eye.

The greatest help comes from the Lord. He knows us, all of us, even the most hidden. The old fashion word for God’s work is conviction. We should ask the Lord to reveal our bondage, for conviction is the beginning of freedom.

To expose the unrealized self is the first step in our deliverance, but we must be careful about the second. Repentance is rarely what we think it is. We can define it as ceasing to do evil and beginning to do good. This makes repentance a command. “Don’t be your shadow self!” If you have ever wrestled with yourself in this manner, you understand we seldom win, and if we do, pride and self-righteousness are waiting for us on the other side. We end up with a new shadow self, even more monstrous than the first.

The shadow self remains hidden because of fear. We think it has the power to define us. The ego believes it must hide its dark side to avoid shame. True repentance is not making the decision to be good instead of evil in hopes of pleasing God. Change without grace strengthens the ego’s self-definition.

 The Greek word commonly used in the New Testament for repentance is metanoia. It means to change one’s mind. Yes, we must repent of the dark self, but we do so by changing our mind about it. IT DOES NOT DEFINE US! Take away the shadow self’s power to define, and you take away its power.

Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. And we, who with unveiled faces all reflect the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into His image with intensifying glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit. (2 Corinthians 3:17–18.)

Salvation is more than forgiveness. It is a new source of identity. The good in us we want the world to notice is no longer the measure of our worth, and the evil we keep hidden has lost its power to shame. I only define and know myself in the light of who Christ is. In a sense, I only know myself when I behold Him. The shadow self is the ego’s master, but for those in Christ, it is only an illusion.

Once we realize the hidden self as powerless to define us, we cease to see it when we look at others. We begin to comprehend our neighbor’s true identity. The world is no longer a projection of self, but a reflection of Christ. Those who recognize themselves as Christ-defined recognize their neighbor likewise. Repentance is knowing we were wrong, not just about right and wrong, but about reality itself. It happens when Christ becomes reality in place of self and its projections. This is the ultimate “no longer I but Christ….”

In Christ, we are conformed to His image. This change of mind turns the world upside down. Where we once saw darkness, we see light. We behold glory in the inglorious and God’s love as lavish. The ego is the darkness that veils the God who is all in all.

We spoke earlier of how preachers preach against their shadow selves. They project themselves onto others and then judge them. This is the ministry of condemnation. No one has this calling in the New Covenant age. Ours is the ministry of righteousness. We look at others in the light of Christ, and we tell them what we see.

We are like the father in the story of the Prodigal Son. The younger brother came home dressed in shame. The older brother wanted his sibling to continue to wear his dishonor. Yet, the father wouldn’t have it. He called for a ring and a robe for his wayward son. An honored son wore such attire. The Father did not condemn the son but told him who he truly was, one defined by his father’s love. As my dear friend Lynn Johnson says, “Our job is to give the world a ring and a robe!” We are not to be the older brother who refused to join the celebration of the father’s love.

I have seen such a renaissance in my preaching in the past few years. I used to judge the people who came to Thorncrown Chapel as far from God. I was projecting my failure to capture God upon them. It was a rude awakening to realize they were me. Yet God turns tears to joy and shame into a celebration. He did so by showing me that my failure to earn God did not define me. It was the shadow self that reckoned it did. I rejoice in my inability that the power of His ability might dwell in me.

Now I see those who walk in our doors as alive to God through the power of the resurrection, partakers of the mind of Christ, no longer incapable but very capable indeed! I have the most wonderful job in the world. I get to tell people who they are.

Sometimes people ask me why I don’t preach condemnation like many do. They think because I don’t condemn people’s sins; I don’t preach against sin. I do, but it is in a form they don’t recognize. I believe the cure for sin is a ring and a robe. Our services are to be a celebration of who Christ is, and when we celebrate who He is, we celebrate who we are. The ego isn’t invited to the party!

Jesus’s image of the beam and the speck perfectly illustrated the ego’s condition. When self is the source of identity, we bury our shame and project it upon others to save ourselves. God’s solution was not to rid us of our evil, so we can be worthy. Some people conclude this is God’s aim in our lives, but this reasoning only strengthens the ego, leaving it in pride or shame.

Paul said in Galatians 2:20 that we have been crucified together with Christ. The ego, as the source of identity, died with Christ. Self-definition remains only as a vain imagination. Its only power is ignorance. When the darkness fades, we see Christ and the reality we are the fulness of Him who fills all in all.