Before you read on, go ahead and attempt to poke your elbow in your eye.

Were you successful? I’m not going to say that it is impossible, because I don’t personally know 7.5 billion persons. There is, no doubt, someone limber enough to accomplish this feat.

For the overwhelming majority of us, it is impossible to touch every portion of our body. I know that no one needs someone to poke them in the eye, but we might need someone to assist viewing an area of our body that we have concerns with.

A pain inside might need an xray.

A blemish back of our head might need someone else to view.

Our countenance might be down, and we are unaware.

We are meant to live in community. The community is made of family, friends, and even sometimes strangers that God brings into our lives for a season.

The community that I live in is called “the church.” The bible word for “church” is the same word that the Roman and Greek community used for a political gathering; an assembly for a specific purpose.

In modern American Christianity, we have departed from community. We have adopted the idea of Jesus’ being our personal savior to the degree that the majority of those who identify as Christians are not members of a local assembly. More specifically, the majority of America (in other words, more than 50%) identify as Christian, but less than 20% of Americans are connected to a local assembly.

In the garden of Eden, God said, “it isn’t good that man should be alone.” Specifically, He was referring to Adam, the man; in the wholistic sense, He was referring to mankind. In the history of the world, God formed a family, then through Abraham God formed a people, and then through Jesus the Son of God, God formed a forever family; the church.

Church life isn’t just about attendance, giving offerings, and pot luck suppers, (but all three are necessary… I really miss potlucks!). Church life involves life together. Church life involves us speaking into one another, and holding one another accountable.

Paul writes to the Corinthian church about a horrible situation. Read I Corinthians 5. A man in the church is having an adulterous affair with his step mother. The church is rejoicing about it, rather than taking action. Paul minces no words: “…you must throw the man out and hand him over to satan so that his sinful nature will be destroyed and he himself will be saved on the day the Lord returns.” I Corinthians 5:5

Later, in Paul’s next letter, he addresses restoring the man back into the fellowship of believers. This could not have happened if the church didn’t hold one another accountable.

It seems that now, on a regular basis, ministers of the gospel are being exposed for gross sin. Many of them have no accountability, or what they have is a group of “yes men” that don’t ask the hard questions.

Most people, when confronted with sin deny, deflect, and defend. This is not the pathway to righteousness; its the pathway to destruction.

When I was in the Army, I HAD to depend upon my battle buddies to ensure my uniform was “dress right dress.” As a matter of fact, we inspected everything on a regular basis; uniform, personal appearance, equipment check, vehicle safety inspection. The answer is obvious: we wanted to be battle ready.

We should welcome others that love and care for us to see the areas of our life that are blindspots. We all have them! We can’t poke our elbow into our eye.

One of the most misunderstood and misapplied scriptures is the “speck in your eye” scripture. People often refer to it in more of a “people that live in glass houses” fashion. Let’s read it together: “Hypocrite! First get rid of the log in your own eye; then you will see well enough to deal with the speck in your friend’s eye,” (Matthew 7:5 NLT).

Notice, both log eye guy and speck eye guy have issues! Let’s keep our way clear, not so that we never address the faults and sins of others, but so that we can see our way clear enough to help one another.

Judgment isn’t rejection; its our salvation!