Luke 6:39-45 :

He spoke a parable to them. “Can the blind guide the blind? Won’t they both fall into a pit? A disciple is not above his teacher, but everyone when he is fully trained will be like his teacher. Why do you see the speck of chaff that is in your brother’s eye, but don’t consider the beam that is in your own eye? Or how can you tell your brother, ‘Brother, let me remove the speck of chaff that is in your eye,’ when you yourself don’t see the beam that is in your own eye? You hypocrite! First remove the beam from your own eye, and then you can see clearly to remove the speck of chaff that is in your brother’s eye. For there is no good tree that brings forth rotten fruit; nor again a rotten tree that brings forth good fruit. For each tree is known by its own fruit. For people don’t gather figs from thorns, nor do they gather grapes from a bramble bush. The good man out of the good treasure of his heart brings out that which is good, and the evil man out of the evil treasure of his heart brings out that which is evil, for out of the abundance of the heart, his mouth speaks.

In this passage, Jesus logically explains why it is inappropriate for someone who doesn’t do right themselves to have a position of authority over others. He explains that teaching someone morality while being immoral yourself will actually produce greater immorality. In that sense, it would be better for the teacher to shut up and stop the spread of immorality!

Jesus explains that, in the end, the student figures you out as a teacher and follows your example, no matter how you try to remove the problem in the student. If I am understanding this symbolism correctly, Jesus goes on to explain that the real “root” of the problem is the evil in the teacher. That evil teacher, no matter how much he tries to fix the student, cannot ever produce good students because eventually the words out of the mouth of this evil teacher will be evil too spoiling both the teacher and the students.

This has application for both teachers and students. Teachers should expect that their students will follow their manner not their words. This is obvious when you consider children. They end up doing what their parents do, not what they say. This is something that parents, as teachers, should keep in mind. Christian leaders should model the behavior that they teach. As for students, we should learn to pick our teachers well, and the proper way to do this is to look at how they live. If you like how they live, then become their student and you will live like they do. If you don’t like how they live, then avoid them because you will end up doing what they do.

Government: This brings up a serious problem we often see in government today. Many government authorities are asking the people to respect their position even though they, themselves, are not above reproach. It is true that we aught to respect authority as Jesus has said; however, Jesus has also made it clear that we are to remove any authority that is evil so that evil doesn’t spread. We aught to remove evil authority and keep the position respectable.