No Excuse

Romans 2:1-2 Therefore you have no excuse, O man, every one of you who judges. For in passing judgment on another you condemn yourself, because you, the judge, practice the very same things. We know that the judgment of God falls rightly on those who practice such things.

There are a couple of terms that really irritate me. The first is “guilty until proven innocent.” And the second is “guilty by association.”  I have seen these two terms used, overused, and placed into practice in real-life in the past year. The results have been nothing short of tragic.

There are more than a few down sides to our modern society of constantly being connected. The time it takes for an event to be splashed across the headlines of newspapers, websites, blogs, etcetera has been drastically shortened. And for some reason, the public seems to have changed their perspective on ‘innocence. We, in the United States are a country formed after our forefathers experiencing that very same environment and resoundingly rejecting such in our own constitution. But then again, who reads the constitution. The innocent until proven guilty concept is inconvenient for a society looking to move on the next big things more quickly. Out span of attention is small, and seemingly our compassion is just as small. We really need to look closely at Romans 1:1-2. The reminder that “for in passing judgment on another you condemn yourself” has been lost on most people in our society.  We are entering into the season of politics and are constantly bombarded by many variations of “The Truth”. It all seems to depend on the time, the place, or the person as to which truth should apply.  We are all to willing to throw out the positive in a person and grasp on to the negative. We feel compelled to ‘judge” others. We need to stop and rethink our whole mindset.  None of us is perfect. No one dare “cast the first stone” as we are all sinful and prone to failure. Yet there we stand more than willing to pitch away at others. In passing judgment we heap judgment upon ourselves. “We know that the judgment of God falls rightly on those who practice such things.” And this is a judgment we must do our level best to avoid. And to do so requires that we treat others as we ourselves would be treated. It is a simple principle. We must try to embrace it in our daily lives.

PRAYER: Almighty God, we all to often rush to judge others. We fail to wait for the facts to be gathered and jump to the conclusion that characterizes others in the worst possible light. We, who are sinners, try to raise ourselves by lowering others. We justly deserve your present and eternal punishment. Help us dear Lord to overcome our sinful nature. We would be lost, if it were not for the sacrifice of Jesus Christ and Your eternal grace. We are humbled and give thanks to You, Amen.