Making Comparisons.

     People tend to consider themselves as good. They know they have a fault or two, but basically they are good at heart.
     They look around and see that they are not like the single mother down the street who has never married, or like the man struggling with drug addiction.
     It is easy to see the sins of others while we conveniently overlook the obvious in our own lives (Matt 7:3). In order to justify ourselves in the eyes of God, we fall into the trap of making our own standard of judgment (2 Cor 10:12). Paul says that those who do this lack understanding.
     Consider Adolph Hitler. We could compare our lives and actions with his, and come to the conclusion that we are not that bad. After all he was guilty of countless atrocities. He was responsible for the suffering of countless numbers of people, displacing them from their homes and countries, splitting up families, imprisonment, torture, and the systematic slaughter of millions of Jewish people and other groups he deemed inferior.
     Stop and think however, at what point did his actions become too much? When he began to invade other countries? When he began to round up people, or when he began to kill them? At what point did he become bad? Was it long before this, beginning with smaller, less noticeable sins?
     See how useless it is to judge ourselves by ourselves as sinful human beings? We have no true standard to base our judgment on.
     We have a standard. It is the standard that God uses, and it is absolute. It is God's law, and He will use it to judge us with all fairness (James 2:12). James tells us that if we keep the whole law, and yet break one commandment, we become guilty of all of it (James 2:10).
     You see God's standard is not like ours, where we decide if we are good enough by looking at how many things we have done, compared to how many, and of what sort of sins others have committed. To be a lawbreaker in just one point of God's law, is to be a lawbreaker.
     Look at the example of Hitler again. We might say that we have never killed another person, let alone be responsible for the genocide of an entire people group. What does God have to say about prejudice though? In this same passage The law of liberty condemns it as murder (James 2:1-13).
     How many of you are prejudiced against another race, or someone of another social status, or economic class? God calls this murder!
     Jesus considers anger murder as well (Matt 5:21-22). John, writing under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, condemns hatred as murder (1 John 3:15).
     This tightens things up for us quite a bit! Do we look so good now, when we measure ourselves by God's standard?
     It is a shocking thing to consider that an individual who hates a racial group is just as evil in God's sight, as someone who has actually carried out genocide! 
     This principle holds true for adultery as well. You might think you are faithful to your spouse, not like that guy down the street who is having an affair, but what about your thought life? Do you look at others with lust in your heart? If so, you are guilty of adultery according to Jesus, who will be your judge someday (Matt 5:27; Acts 17:30; Romans 2:16; 2 Cor 5:10).
     The truth is, no matter how hard we try to justify ourselves in God's eye, we fall far short of His standard. We need a Savior, not only to make it possible to be forgiven, but to change our hearts and lives! 
     As sinful human beings, we are liars, thieves, adulterers, blasphemers, and murderers. We worship gods of our own invention, making us idolaters. We have all sinned and fall short of God's glory (Romans 3:23). Our only hope is found in Jesus Christ, who gave Himself for our sins (1 Peter 2:24). We need the new birth with its life changing power to set us free from sin. We need the life changing power of Christ turning us towards living righteously in this present age (Titus 2:11-12, 3:5; Gal 1:4; 2 Cor 5:17). We need the law of God written upon our hearts (Heb 10:16-17). 
     Stop looking at others, and surrender to Jesus Christ today!