The Common Denominator

“And why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brother's eye, but considerest not the beam that is in thine own eye? Or how wilt thou say to thy brother, Let me pull out the mote out of thine eye; and, behold, a beam is in thine own eye?” Matthew 7:3-4, KJV.

Have we ever encountered persons who always point the finger at another saying, you’ve done this wrong or you need to do this or that? Those who view themselves as the standard rather than pointing people towards Christ? When I ponder this scripture, the message illuminates in my mind clearly what Jesus is saying. It prompts me to thinking about the many encounters I’ve had concerning people who’ve crossed my path in life with each person being different and me the constant factor.

As I consider this I think back on my days of school and the math classes I took. Some students enjoyed it, but I must admit as time went on it was not my favorite subject. I recall the days of numerators and denominators, fractions and reciprocals. Does any of this bring back fond memories to those of you who’ve been out of school for a while? Well it brings back memories for me…I probably wouldn’t call them fond though.

In mathematics we’ve learned that the common denominator is a quantity into which all the denominators of a set of fractions may be divided without a remainder. For example, the fractions 1/3 and 2/5 have a common denominator of 15; 15 in this case would be the commonly shared theme or trait. The top number in a fraction is known as the numerator. It can change several times in the midst of an equation and there is no noted common theme, it varies. This is what I think about when I consider people who are paired up—fractions. At times partners change, but if we’re to only speak on a particular person’s life there’s only one part of that fraction changing. This does not have to necessarily be romantic relationships only, but also consider business partnerships and family dynamics.

It is important to consider a person’s ways as we progress through life. There may be times when we encounter unfavorable conditions in either of the relationships mentioned above, but we must acknowledge the familiar characteristic. If there is always a relationship or a job that doesn’t work out, could it be that it’s because you keep showing up? This is not to include situations where a person stands up for God to oppose evil because I believe we should all be common denominators when it comes to that, but I’m discussing the fact that whenever something goes wrong the denominator never takes responsibility in any of those situations. “Thou hypocrite, first cast out the beam out of thine own eye; and then shalt thou see clearly to cast out the mote out of thy brother's eye,” Matthew 7:5, KJV.

We must be able to do self-examinations at times. It is important that we as Christians don’t get so caught up in sharing the Gospel that we lose sight in following its principles. This will keep us mindful of when others try to give us advice and steer us in a direction God doesn’t want us going. How are they living? What kind of company do they keep? Are they qualified, not by a piece of paper, but by the Holy Spirit to say the things that they are saying? Have they been through anything, and most importantly have they learned any lessons along the way. I am very leery of people who claim that their lives are and have always been perfect. Jesus was the only one who lived a perfect, sinless life, and guess what, He went through some things too.