Excuses

Judgmental, Hypocrisy and Prejudice - These three words seem to keep many people from coming to God or at least the excuse not to. We love to condemn or blame anyone who may be guilty of anyone of these three because in our minds it makes us a better person. We evaluate others on the basis of whether their sin exceeds our own and as long as their sins don’t exceed ours, then we accept them as one of us. If we perceive them better than us, then we find the need to take them down a peg. I’ve heard it said many times, “At least I’ve never killed anyone.” If that was the only sin in the world we would all being doing pretty good, or would we? If you have even thought about this then you are just as guilty as doing it. Man looks on the outward appearance, but God looks on the heart.

We will never eradicate these problems because they are sin. Since we can’t eradicate sin, we will have to deal with this is a problem within ourselves and with the help of Christ. There’s not a one of us who is not guilty of being judgmental, a hypocrite or prejudiced. You, therefore, have no excuse, you who pass judgment on someone else, for at whatever point you judge the other, you are condemning yourself, because you who pass judgment do the same things. Now we know that God's judgment against those who do such things is based on truth. So when you, a mere man, pass judgment on them and yet do the same things, do you think you will escape God's judgment? Romans 2:1-3 I had a philosophy one time that if I was to become really bad then I would have no right to look down on others. By the way, it didn’t work. We may improve these problems, but we’ll never remove them.

At boot camp we do something called negative tapes. The women go first by filling in the blank…All men are _________. Then the men get the same opportunity to say…All women are __________. Then they do one more…All Christians are ___________. For anyone to answer these comments truthfully they would have had to meet all men, all women and all Christians before they could make an accurate analysis. We base what we think of others according to our own hurt and pain. We are also attracted to those on the same level of emotional pain. Think about that statement and the person you married or you may be dating at this time.

All of these things can be traced back to legalism, living the Christian life by our own will power and rules. This promotes self-righteousness and pride and that promotes Judgmentalness, Hypocrisy and Prejudice. Living in grace produces humility and power.

The bottom line is we really don’t want to feel bad about ourselves and the solution we’ve devised to help us feel better or look better is to knock others down so we can stand above them. We also see it as the opportunity to give us an excuse for doing what we really desire to do.

I’m not going to church because of all those hypocrites down there.

What’s the use in reading the Bible, I can’t understand it anyway.

I’m not going to a party where people are just going to look down on me.

Love is just something people say to get what they want.

That church has enough money, so they’re not getting mine to blow.

I’m sorry, but I just don’t know much about the Bible or God.

You get the point. That last statement definitely doesn’t stand in our society… I’m sorry, but I just don’t know much about the Bible or God. There are over 20 versions of the Bible not to mention 1000’s of Christian books to learn from. The only one at fault for not knowing is yours. You say, well, I don’t like to read. So!! By saying any of these things you are giving all those people control of your life. They are telling you what to think, how to think and where you can go. You are also the most likely candidate for being duped in following a stupid person. (False Prophet) If people are truly guilty of judgmentalness, hypocrisy or prejudice it doesn’t matter, you are still giving them control of your life if you are basing your choices on them. I would rather push all those people aside and consider what God thinks. I choose to let Him have control over my life because all I can seem to do is mess it up.