How Far?

 Excuses are like a cup of hot cocoa on a chilly winter morning. They are comforting and make us feel warm inside, but as soon as the cup is done or the cocoa is no longer steaming, the cold creeps back in, and your bones start to feel it. The cup of cocoa is a temporary respite from the cold; a bear skin coat with an insulated hood is a permanent solution for as long as you choose to stay in the great outdoors.

Whenever we have an overwhelming need to find an excuse for something, it’s a telltale sign that whatever that something might be, it’s not right or pleasing in the sight of the Lord. There’s always a reason we can come up with for doing what we did, and just so we’re clear, coming up with an excuse is not repentance. Repentance is repentance.

As long as our actions and reactions are justifiable in the short term, we’ll cling to the excuse as though it was a lifeline. I wouldn’t have gotten angry if the lady hadn’t cut me off in traffic. I wouldn’t have cheated on my diet if my wife hadn’t baked that peach cobbler. It’s her fault I had a third helping; she shouldn’t have made it so delicious. I wouldn’t have gone against my principles and ethics if the government hadn’t mandated it. You know, things like that. Things that we think help us sleep better at night or allow us to live with ourselves, but they really don’t. Band-Aids on bullet wounds do nothing but mask the leaking hole.

We get so comfortable making excuses that we even go as far as trying to justify them biblically. The verse in Jude that refers to speaking evil of dignitaries is one of the passages often used to justify blind obedience to everything the ruling class decides you should be doing.

As with all things, there is a balance, and while you should pay your taxes, as Jesus said, you should never obey the words of men over the Word of God. Man will never supersede God; as His children, our first priority is obedience and allegiance to Him.

Jude 8, “Likewise also these dreamers defile the flesh, reject authority, and speak evil of dignitaries. Yet Michael the archangel, in contending with the devil, when he disputed about the body of Moses, dared not bring against him a reviling accusation, but said, “The Lord rebuke you!’”

Well, there you go with all your talk of standing up for what’s right and resisting the devil in all his varied forms. The angel didn’t bring reviling accusations against the devil, so there. He may not have brought reviling accusations against the devil, but he didn’t give up Moses’s body either. Michael, the archangel, left dealing with the devil to the one who was in authority over him. He had been given a task to perform, and that was all he was commanded to do. To take the body of Moses and hide it away so that the people wouldn’t make an idol of him. Dealing with the devil was not his primary concern; carrying out his orders was.

There is also a difference between speaking evil of someone and vehemently disagreeing with their positions on specific issues. Don’t confuse the two or try to amalgamate them into one. They are two separate actions, one being a legitimate grievance as to how someone is governing, the other wishing death upon them as individuals. That’s what speaking evil means: It’s the desire for physical harm to come to someone and that we ought not to do as believers, regardless.

Defending the truth, defending the sanctity of life, and standing up for what is noble, moral, and just is not speaking evil against anyone; that is doing what we’ve been commanded to do: be the light in the darkness.

Just shut up and do what you’re told is not the message of the Bible, even though the unscrupulous, immoral, self-serving, and vile would love for you to believe it is so. If you’re a Christian, you’re supposed to accept me and validate me and celebrate me, and above all, you can’t judge me! Says who? Not the Bible, not Jesus, not any of the prophets of the Old Testament or the apostles of the New.

Jesus didn’t say don’t judge. He said don’t judge unrighteously because you will be judged with what judgment you judge, and with the measure you use, it will be measured back to you.

Matthew 7:1-2, “Judge not, that you may not be judged. For with what judgment you judge, you will be judged; and with the measure you use, it will be measured back to you.”

Is pointing out sin and the need for repentance judging? Is calling the murder of an unborn baby wrong and vile judging? Even if we were to say that it is, is the measure you use to judge such things so slanted that you would not want it to be measured back to you?

Between being silent while sin overruns every area of life, while babies are needlessly murdered and children irrevocably mutilated and calling sin by name, I’d rather stand before God having stood, having spoken, and having resisted than having warmed a pew deaf, dumb, and blind, saying nothing as darkness covered all.

Calling sin what it is, is not judging with an unjust measure. Being silent in the face of it is. By their silence, men consent to what is happening in today’s culture. With their approval and acceptance, men are waving the white flag of surrender for fear of getting hurt in battle.

If you’re a coward, be a coward, but don’t use love and understanding as the excuse and justification for your cowardice. While we’re at it, don’t condemn those who stand and fight for righteousness’ sake as the reason for the devil’s backlash. Don’t brand brave men villains while you see your cowardice as a virtue.

With love in Christ,

Michael Boldea, Jr.