Isaiah 50:4. To hear as those who are taught. Like a pupil who is ready to learn. But when they hear us for the purpose of passing judgment on the Word, they are bringing the ears of a teacher. One who is eager for the truth submits his ears to learning, and he does not fight to show off his skill. To one who makes this kind of accusation you must answer: “I am not here to teach the teacher but the pupil who is eager and wearied, who reduces his wisdom to nothing.” Here is a most harmonious relationship between the learned tongue, the ready ear, and the heart prepared for learning. The Enthusiasts indeed have stirred up ears but exceedingly unlearned tongues. They are quite ready even to hear lies, but they cannot keep their tongues from fighting against the Word.

5. I was not rebellious. “It is the Lord who opens My ears.” So it is for Christ and so it is for all Christians, even if because of weakness and denseness they feel that all things are contradictions and hindrances and faults in sins, anxiety, poverty, blasphemy, etc. Nevertheless, to hear the Word in earnest and to bear all things for the sake of the Word, this is ultimately very difficult. I turned not backward, that is, “I do not turn back to Egypt and become unbelieving, but I confess the Word with the mouth as well as in deed. I sing the praises of the power and might of that seemingly powerless and foolish Word.” (Luther’s Works, v. 17, pages 194).

You may say to this: “Am I not to speak out when an injustice is being done? Am I to call it justice and condone it? Am I to find it pleasing when the properties of the monasteries are seized or when there is coarse behavior and no praying or fasting?” No, I am not telling you to do that. He acknowledges here that there is a speck and that it should be removed; but here He is giving you instructions about doing it properly. I have to admit that it is not very nice, this speck in the eye. But above all I must determine whether I have a log in my own eye, and take that out first. Make the villain in your own breast pious, and then go on to see to it that the little villain becomes pious, too. It is wrong when the big thieves hang the little ones, as the saying goes, and the big villains condemn the little ones….” (Luther’s Works, v. 21, pages 221).

Now, anyone who is a Christian must certainly know and feel in himself that such immaculate purity is impossible and that daily the article “the forgiveness of sins” has to rule in us. Therefore it is easy to pardon other people’s faults and to put them all together by saying in the Lord’s Prayer: “Forgive us as we forgive.” This is especially so when it is evident that the other person honors the Word and does not despise or persecute it. Where the Word is, there Christ’s kingdom is, and full forgiveness, which consumes the speck. Therefore, where we notice this, we should not despise or condemn anyone. Otherwise we shall make our own speck a log and fail to obtain forgiveness, because we refuse to forgive other people.” (Luther’s Works, v. 21, pages 220-221).