Daily Bible Reading 7th June 2026 // Luke 6:27-38
39 He also told them a parable: “Can a blind man lead a blind man? Will they not both fall into a pit? 40 A disciple is not above his teacher, but everyone when he is fully trained will be like his teacher. 41 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? 42 How can you say to your brother, ‘Brother, let me take out the speck that is in your eye’, when you yourself do not see the log that is in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take out the speck that is in your brother's eye.
43 “For no good tree bears bad fruit, nor again does a bad tree bear good fruit, 44 for each tree is known by its own fruit. For figs are not gathered from thorn bushes, nor are grapes picked from a bramble bush. 45 The good person out of the good treasure of his heart produces good, and the evil person out of his evil treasure produces evil, for out of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaks.
Our Lord underlines in these verses the relation between character and influence. It is what we are in all this that will tell. It is only by the working out of basic Christian character, the building up of true lives, that we will tell for Christ and His kingdom. There is an inexorableness, almost, in what our Lord says here, in this regard. There can be no possibility of 'pulling the wool over people's eyes' so far as this is concerned. We simply have to be real, and anything less will surely be exposed: those we try to lead will surely land in the ditch, our efforts at doing good (42) will be nullified by our own need to be put right, and our fruitlessness will be manifest to all. In this realm, all forms of unreality come to grief, and no one gets off. One thinks of the incident at the foot of the Mount of Transfiguration (Matthew 17:19) when the disciples were unable to help the demon-possessed boy. When they asked Jesus, 'Why could not we cast him out?' Jesus said it was because of their unbelief. Quite. But the reason for their unbelief was surely that they had not as yet been made - indeed, had not as yet allowed themselves to be made - into the right kind of men, men who could have faith to do this. It is what we are that determines the worth of what we say or do in the service of the gospel.