A man cuts you off in traffic. Instinct says, “He’s reckless.” But if you cut someone off, you think, “I was late. “Psychologists call this the fundamental attribution error. We explain others’ failures by their character but our own by circumstance. The Bible calls it judging without mercy.
Jesus spoke to this long before modern psychology. “Judge not, that you be not judged.” His warning is not about avoiding discernment but about exposing hypocrisy. We all see the speck in another’s eye while ignoring the beam in our own. The problem is not perception; it is pride.
We are quick to make moral judgments about others and slow to apply the same standard to ourselves. Adam blamed Eve. Eve blamed the serpent. Sin teaches us to protect our image instead of confessing our fault. “Every way of a man is right in his own eyes, but the Lord weighs the heart” (Proverbs 21.2). We assume others act from corruption, and we act from reason. Paul names this clearly: “In passing judgment on another you condemn yourself, because you, the judge, practice the very same things” (Romans 2.1).
The heart’s default setting is self-justification. We measure others by their worst moments and ourselves by our best intentions. Jesus’ image of the log and the speck is sharp humor. The man squints to remove a speck from another’s eye while a beam juts from his own. You cannot help a brother see clearly until you see clearly yourself. The Pharisee in Luke 18 prayed, “God, I thank you that I am not like other men.” The tax collector beat his chest and said, “God, be merciful to me, a sinner.” One left justified, the other was not. The gospel begins with humility.
Jesus does not forbid evaluation, he wants us to avoid blind condemnation. The difference is posture. Evaluation seeks restoration. Condemnation seeks superiority. The crowd that dragged the woman caught in adultery before Jesus saw her sin but ignored their own. His words, “Let him who is without sin cast the first stone,” forced them to face their blindness. They dropped their stones and walked away.
When Samuel looked at Jesse’s sons, he assumed the tallest and strongest must be king. God corrected him: “Man looks on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart” (1 Samuel 16.7). We see surface; God sees story. The cross shows how far our perception can miss. Humanity looked at Christ and saw a criminal. God saw the Savior. “They crucified the Lord of glory” (1 Corinthians 2.8). The most righteous man was condemned by the most religious people. That is the ultimate attribution error.
The gospel reorients our sight. It tells us that mercy triumphs over judgment (James 2.13). It teaches us to slow down before we label, to imagine the pressures and pain that shape another’s choices, and to remember the patience God has shown us. Before explaining someone’s failure, pause. Ask: What might I not see? What mercy have I received? When we live this way, we exchange the fundamental attribution error for the fundamental act of grace.
“Lord, teach us to see others as you see them. To judge truly, to love deeply, and to extend the mercy I have received.”
~PW 🌮🛶
Suggested Reading
- Ross, L. (1977). The intuitive psychologist and his shortcomings: Distortions in the attribution process. In L. Berkowitz (Ed.), Advances in Experimental Social Psychology (Vol. 10, pp. 173–220). New York: Academic Press.
- Keller, T. (2016). Preaching: Communicating Faith in an Age of Skepticism. Viking.
Phillip W. Martin 
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