Sinners Like Us

"1 You may think you can condemn such people, but you are just as bad, and you have no excuse! When you say they are wicked and should be punished, you are condemning yourself, for you who judge others do these very same things. 2 And we know that God, in his justice, will punish anyone who does such things. 3 Since you judge others for doing these things, why do you think you can avoid God’s judgment when you do the same things? 4 Don’t you see how wonderfully kind, tolerant, and patient God is with you? Does this mean nothing to you? Can’t you see that his kindness is intended to turn you from your sin?" -Romans 2:1-4 (NLT)

If you read Romans 1 you see Paul discuss some sins that people had been doing. He lists their shameful acts. He says they were doing every sort of "wickedness." Going on about how it is wrong. When you're reading it, it is easy to start thinking that you are better than them, and condemn these wicked people in your mind for their transgressions. It is like Paul knows what you are thinking and at the beginning of Romans 2 says this. He basically flips it on you.

I focus so much time and effort into improving myself, trying to live up to God's standards, follow the Bible's example, etc. That when I see other people who genuinely don't care about what the Bible says I have a natural response to look down on them. I can easily think of myself as better than them, since at least I'm not committing those sins.

But I'm not better than them. And neither are you. We all sin. The wages of sin is death, we are all guilty of sin. The standard Jesus set was perfection and we all fall short of that. Whether we fall short of it by an inch or a mile doesn't matter, we are all in the same boat: sinners in need of a savior. Through accepting Christ's sacrifice, we are forgiven by God. We must ingrain it in our heads that we earned nothing. God owed us nothing. It is through God's grace that we are saved.

On paper, I know it is easy to agree with that, yet how quickly we forget that we have done nothing to earn God's love, when we see someone doing something we know is wrong. We immediately think of how we wouldn't do that, how we're better than that. We're NOT.

Think of yourself. How you used to be, when you were in their shoes. When you knew no better. What did you need at that moment, condemnation or love? We are all sinners, we have all been there. Be careful not to get too full of yourself just because you found Jesus. He has been there the whole time, He was waiting for you, just like He is waiting for them now.

Remember, God loves them just as much as He loves us. There is nothing we can do to make God love us more or less. He already loves us unconditionally and more than we can imagine. This scripture talks of God's kindness with us, He is patient with us when we sin.

We must remember that if God is patient with us, we must be patient with others. Do not judge them, do not look down on someone, do not condemn someone if you think they are doing wrong. See them as Christ would see them, with compassion.

We love Him because He first loved us.

So we have to love on others, no matter how close or far away they are from God. You're not better than anyone just because you're a Christian. God loves them just as much as He loves us. So love them, too.