Raise your hand if you’ve attained sinless perfection. Ok, that’s a dumb request. I mean, who’s arrogant enough to believe this about themselves, right? How about just close to perfection, or really good? Am I getting warmer? How about just good? Or how about everyone’s favorite – are you at least ‘better’ than someone else you can think of? At some point, you’ll hit your personal threshold and realize that you sound like the Pharisee in the following parable.
[Jesus] also told this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and treated others with contempt:
“Two men went up into the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee, standing by himself, prayed thus: ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week; I give tithes of all that I get.’
But the tax collector, standing far off, would not even lift up his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, ‘God, be merciful to me, a sinner!’ I tell you, this man went down to his house justified, rather than the other.
For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted.”
— Luke 18:9-14
Do you recognize your own human flesh in the Pharisee? I do. My flesh is constantly trying to dominate others in any way it can. It’s awful and I’m repulsed by it. But, in humility, for the sake of my own deliverance, I admit that such an abomination exists in me. I hate that this is true, but it is. Paul conceded this same grotesqueness in himself.
For we know that the law is spiritual, but I am of the flesh, sold under sin. For I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate. Now if I do what I do not want, I agree with the law, that it is good. So now it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me. For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh. For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out. For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing. Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me.
— Romans 7:14-20
Life can be so frustrating sometimes because we fail…a lot…especially in this one area. If we’re humble, we can learn a lot from this truth. For starters, when we fail, what’s our first instinct? Is it to confess our sin to God or is it, instead, to point at someone else who’s supposedly sinned worse? The Bible states, ”Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will exalt you” (James 4:10). Does it say to compare sins with others? No, that’s a strategy the human flesh likes to use to preserve its self-righteousness. Sir Isaac Newton’s third law of motion states that for every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction – as in, when we push someone else down, we go up. It’s foul, but I’ve never met a person who hasn’t elevated themselves at the expense of others. Never.
Why do you see the speck that is in your brother’s eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye? How can you say to your brother, ‘Brother, let me take out the speck that is in your eye,’ when you yourself do not see the log that is in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take out the speck that is in your brother’s eye.
— Luke 6:41-42
Jesus teaches us that hypocrisy is evil. To look at another person’s sin with anything other than an understanding heart is arrogant. How can we possibly justify such a thing, given our own depravity? And yet, isn’t that exactly what we do every time we compare ourselves to others? Indeed. We ought to be rooting for each other’s deliverance from personal sinfulness. And, if perchance we are on the receiving end of a sin, then we ought to readily forgive. But there’s a catch…
There’s a battle raging within us: do we choose to understand other sinners or do we pounce and take advantage of them when they sin?
The human flesh is opposed to forgiveness because it undermines its ability to oppress others. Forgiveness relinquishes any unrighteous hold one person has over another. Some people live in fortresses, built brick by brick, keeping score of all the wrongs they’ve suffered at the hands of others. Each brick has a name, a date, and some details about a specific incident. What they don’t understand is that they are building their own prison. Forgiveness sets a person free; unforgiveness walls them in.
Then Peter came up and said to him, “Lord, how often will my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? As many as seven times?” Jesus said to him, “I do not say to you seven times, but seventy-seven times.
“Therefore the kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who wished to settle accounts with his servants. When he began to settle, one was brought to him who owed him ten thousand talents. And since he could not pay, his master ordered him to be sold, with his wife and children and all that he had, and payment to be made. So the servant fell on his knees, imploring him, ‘Have patience with me, and I will pay you everything.’ And out of pity for him, the master of that servant released him and forgave him the debt.
But when that same servant went out, he found one of his fellow servants who owed him a hundred denarii, and seizing him, he began to choke him, saying, ‘Pay what you owe.’ So his fellow servant fell down and pleaded with him, ‘Have patience with me, and I will pay you.’ He refused and went and put him in prison until he should pay the debt. When his fellow servants saw what had taken place, they were greatly distressed, and they went and reported to their master all that had taken place.
Then his master summoned him and said to him, ‘You wicked servant! I forgave you all that debt because you pleaded with me. And should not you have had mercy on your fellow servant, as I had mercy on you?’ And in anger his master delivered him to the jailers, until he should pay all his debt. So also my heavenly Father will do to every one of you, if you do not forgive your brother from your heart.”
— Matthew 18:21-35
For judgment is without mercy to one who has shown no mercy. Mercy triumphs over judgment.
— James 2:13
Surely there is not a righteous man on earth who does good and never sins. Do not take to heart all the things that people say, lest you hear your servant cursing you. Your heart knows that many times you yourself have cursed others.
— Ecclesiastes 7:20-22
I love Solomon’s words in this passage because they give us perspective. We get so spun up when someone speaks evil against us (sins against us), and yet, wasn’t it just yesterday that we sinned against them???
When we are sinned against, it’s best to forgive the person and then pray for them (a weak person needs to be lifted up, not pressed even lower). These are the righteous things to do, and they promote our own sanctification. It’s a sign of maturity when a person readily understands and forgives. In fact, it preserves their own happiness while sowing peace, love, and continued respect for others. While it’s easy for the flesh to point fingers and press others down, there’s no freedom in it. We’re all sinners, that’s a fact. If we abandon the fleshly desire to be ‘better’ than our neighbors, we actually become better in the way it matters, in God’s eyes.
Love in Christ,
Ed Collins