Before God

When talking about good vs. evil, black vs. white, what is really being discussed is sin. What is sin? The basic response is that sin is what is evil. To be good is to be without sin. To be evil is to be with sin.

I have already noted that I am not perfect. For Christians, the only perfect person is Jesus. I strive toward perfection, but I cannot reach it. Does this truly make me evil? In Genesis, God declares His creation to be good.* If God declares me good, then I am good. But I sin. So I must be evil. And on goes the circular argument.

There are those who believe that sin falls on a continuum. That some sins are deadlier than others. A little white lie won’t send you to hell, but a major lie will.

I do not believe this is so. There are crimes that are more horrific than others, yet we are looking at life from our point of view.

I believe that when imperfection (humanity) meets perfection (God Almighty), we are bowed down low by the knowledge of our own faults, however insignificant they may be. Our very nature is incompatible with that of a perfect loving God. And we are not capable of perfection. All of us err. This is how we learn and how we grow. Imperfection is not evil. The sin we commit that is most grievous is that we do not grow. We do not learn from the mistakes we or others have made. We each stumble anew over the same log. The log with the large sign on it saying “Watch Out!”

We will all be before God one day, whether we wish to believe it or not. I pray that I will have removed the logs from my eyes.**

*Genesis 1:27 & 31(New Living Translation) ²⁷ So God created human beings in his own image. In the image of God he created them; male and female he created them. ³¹ Then God looked over all he had made, and he saw that it was very good! And evening passed and morning came, marking the sixth day.

**Luke 6:37-42 (New Living Translation) ³⁷ “Do not judge others, and you will not be judged. Do not condemn others, or it will all come back against you. Forgive others, and you will be forgiven. ³⁸ Give, and you will receive. Your gift will return to you in full—pressed down, shaken together to make room for more, running over, and poured into your lap. The amount you give will determine the amount you get back.” ³⁹ Then Jesus gave the following illustration: “Can one blind person lead another? Won’t they both fall into a ditch? ⁴⁰ Students are not greater than their teacher. But the student who is fully trained will become like the teacher. ⁴¹ “And why worry about a speck in your friend’s eye when you have a log in your own? ⁴² How can you think of saying, ‘Friend, let me help you get rid of that speck in your eye,’ when you can’t see past the log in your own eye? Hypocrite! First get rid of the log in your own eye; then you will see well enough to deal with the speck in your friend’s eye.