We’re Not as Good as We Think we Are
“9 What shall we conclude then? Do we have any advantage? Not at all! For we have already made the charge that Jews and Gentiles alike are all under the power of sin. 22 This righteousness is given through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference between Jew and Gentile, 23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, 24 and all are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.”
It’s so easy to judge people when they aren’t living righteously. Having grown up in the church all my life, and for anyone who has been a part of a church for years, you come across all types of Christians. And the saddest group is what I call the spiritually arrogant. But I’d imagine that at some point or another, any Christian who is walking strongly with God feels a certainly level of superiority. There are a few reasons this can happen- maybe one is at a point where life is good and they feel that they are quite close with God. Or, maybe they just feel like they’re a better Christian.
As the pastor of my church said so plainly a few weeks ago “we’re not as good as we think we are.” God doesn’t have favorites and we’re all the same to Him. Of course He doesn’t look happily on those who are living apart from His will or His Word, but we’re not like Him. God is the only perfect One. Even the most holy of people can fall at any time into temptation.
Turning to Scripture and looking at King David, he was a man after God’s own heart. He lived righteously, he feared God, and God had blessed him in many ways, but he fell:
In the spring, at the time when kings go off to war, David sent Joab out with the king’s men and the whole Israelite army. They destroyed the Ammonites and besieged Rabbah. But David remained in Jerusalem.2 One evening David got up from his bed and walked around on the roof of the palace. From the roof he saw a woman bathing. The woman was very beautiful, 3 and David sent someone to find out about her. The man said, “She is Bathsheba, the daughter of Eliam and the wife of Uriah the Hittite.” 4 Then David sent messengers to get her. She came to him, and he slept with her. (Now she was purifying herself from her monthly uncleanness.) Then she went back home. 5 The woman conceived and sent word to David, saying, “I am pregnant.”
(2 Samuel 11: 1-5)
To get Bathsheba, David broke most all of the 10 commandments and God took their 1st born son. The point I’m trying to make here is that we, like David can fall at any time.
It’s hard for me when I see my friends making choices that are outside the will of God. I struggle with it. And it’s even harder when I see my Christian friends doing it because they know what God expects of them! But, it’s not my place to judge them. That’s God’s role. We also don’t know what God is doing in their lives, so we should just love them and encourage them to return to God (James 5: 19-20). They know how they are living. Christians who have fallen know the distress and discord that is going on in their hearts by the way they are living. So, sometimes while we love them, we should keep quiet and let their conscience be their guide.
“We all think we’re better than we are and God brings us people to build character. He uses people to change us for the better and it’s in these times that we see God’s grace.”
Happy Friday xx!