I can do worser. I can do anything worser than you. This is not, of course, reason to boast, but is reason for shame. The worst shame, however, comes when I forget this truth. We find it all too easy to sit in judgment of others. Now I’m not suggesting, like the world would have us believe, that we ought to make no judgments at all. Nor am I suggesting that others don’t do things that are wrong. What I’m saying is that our judgments are usually not merely, “What you did is wrong” but are instead, “You are a much worse person than I am.”
I have, as I suspect is true of all of us, been on both sides of this equation. I have been guilty of thinking about someone else’s sin, “That person is so much worse than I am.” I’ve also been the guilty one of whom others think, “That person is so much worse than I am.” Two truths ought to keep us well clear of this error. First, while it is certainly true that some people are better than others, the difference between two people is minuscule compared to how far we all fall short. Second, any difference these is must be credited to the grace of God and nothing in each of us. It’s like the disciples, sitting beside the only man ever to live a perfect life, arguing with each other about which of them will be greatest in His kingdom.
Those scenes ought to remind us of us. Instead, we show we are just like them by shaking our heads at their folly and patting ourselves on the back that we would never have done such a thing. It may never get worse with us than when it comes to politics. Just as with right and wrong, politically there is right and wrong. Some policies are terrible. Others are merely bad. A rare few are good. But all the ones proposing or opposing the good or the bad are bad. Just like us. There’s nothing in the water inside the Washington beltway that creates dishonest, dishonorable men out of angels. Rather it is simply power that reveals what was already there.
The Muslim terrorist isn’t evil because he is Muslim but because he is human. Terrorism is just an expression of his fallen nature. The Chinese communist isn’t evil because he is a communist but because he is human. Communism is just an expression of his fallen nature. There, however, but for the grace of God, go we all. The idea that there are two kinds of people, nice ones and monsters is just our inner monster lying to ourselves.
Which is why we ought to always give thanks to God for His grace, both that grace by which He restrains the evil of those outside the kingdom and the grace by which He forgives the evil of those inside the kingdom. He is a good God. And in His grace, and by His power He not only declares evil people like us to be good, but He is remaking us into the image of His Son, the one good man.
