The Pot and the Kettle!

Said the pot to the kettle, "You are dirty and ugly and black!  Surely no one would think you were metal, Except when you have a crack."  "Not so!" said the kettle to the pot.  "Tis' your own dirty image you see; For I am so clean -- without blemish or blot -- that your blackness is mirrored in me."

That humorous little imaginary conversation brings to mind a serious and ugly tendency in human beings, including some folks who frequently sit in church pews.  That tendency is the same one highlighted by the apostle Paul in Romans 2:1-3 which reads as follows -- "Therefore you are inexcusable, O man, whoever you are who judge, for in whatever you judge another you condemn yourself; for you who judge practice the same things.  But we know that the judgment of God is according to truth against those who practice such things.  And do you think this, O man, you who judge those practicing such things, and doing the same, that you will escape the  judgment of God?"  Paul is addressing from the religious / spiritual angle of life the reality that sometimes the pot is guilty of calling the kettle black.  The kettle is black, of course, but the pot is, too!

And yet Paul makes clear the pot thinks itself different from the kettle.  Not so, he warns, and -- pot or not -- God will judge you, too, if you commit the same sins the kettle does!  Wikipedia.com says the phrase "pot calling the kettle black" is a proverbial idiom likely of Spanish origin, versions of which began to appear in English in the first half of the 17th century.  It was (and is) used of a person who is guilty of the very thing of which they accuse another and is an example of a practice known as "psychological projection."  That's a fancy term for denying the existence of certain unconscious but very real qualities or behaviors (especially negative ones) in one's self while attributing them to others.

Later in Romans 2 Paul will ask a series of blunt questions designed to get the religious "pots" he is addressing to take a hard look at themselves -- "You who preach that a man should not steal, do you steal?  You who say, 'Do not commit adultery,' do you commit adultery? ... You who make your boast in the law, do you dishonor God by breaking the law (verses 21b, 22a, 23)?"  Paul's point is clear -- such twisted, schizophrenic behavior is "inexcusable" before God, "for in whatever you judge another, you condemn yourself; for you who judge practice the same things." (Romans 2:4)

Consider this story about a pot calling a kettle black.  "Driving into the office this morning on the interstate in rush-hour traffic, I looked over to my left and there was a woman in a brand new Mustang doing 80 mph -- with her face up in her rearview mirror, putting on eyeliner!  I looked away for a split second and when I looked back, she was drifting over into my lane, still putting on makeup!  It frightened me so badly I dropped my electric shaver, which knocked the doughnut I was eating out of my hand.

In all the confusion of trying to control my car with my knees against the steering wheel, my cell phone got knocked away from my ear and fell in the coffee between my legs, which splashed and burnt my thigh, ruined my phone, and disconnected an important call -- man, WOMEN DRIVERS!"

Remember -- religious or not, God will judge us if we are guilty of practicing the same sinful attitudes and actions we condemn in others.

Think about it.

by: Dan Gulley,