For whoever keeps the whole law and yet stumbles at just one point is guilty of breaking all of it. (James 2:10, NIV)
No one says it like this: “I’m headed out on a fault-finding mission.” No one says it that way, but that doesn’t mean we won’t find people who live their lives with their criticisms right out front. With honesty, we might find that person in the mirror.
Some people, of course, have fault-finding built into their career. Think auditors. Even when they come with a spirit of “let’s fix this” rather than “gotcha!” what they’re looking for is something wrong.
The same, we can say, is true of golf’s teaching professionals. The best ones teach positively, getting you to make new moves with confidence and perform them with repetition. But they’re giving you these new moves because they see something in the old that’s holding you back. You need the good to replace the bad.
So in the big picture, we might even say that fault-finding is helpful. But here’s a place where it may not be: the Bible.
Particularly when it comes to the Old Testament, we can read the accounts of the men and women there like we do the celebrity reports on the covers of the tabloids in the supermarket line. Their lives—and their sins—are writ large, for all the world to see. In fact, today’s celebrities may have an advantage. Their sins will die with them and quickly be forgotten. No such luck for the big sinners of Scripture. Their stories have been told for centuries.
But here is what I’ve noticed, and maybe you have too. When we read and study the Old Testament, we can make the big sins even bigger. We can layer in motives and “heart issues” and even true sins that just aren’t there—that is, not in the text itself. Inference quickly runs wild.
Why do we do this? The answer lies in self-justification. The bigger another person’s sins appear in our mind, the smaller our own sins do. By way of such an assessment, it’s easy to absolve ourselves and not get serious about our unrighteous allowances.
Maybe the answer is to read the Bible anew. Don’t look for the big sinners, and don’t pile fictitious or unverified sins on confirmed ones. Instead, pay attention to the small sinners—those who waffle for convenience’s sake or hide behind religious words. In these people, we are more likely to see ourselves and understand the foolish cover-up of our thoughts and actions.
Big sinners and small have the same critical need: a Savior. When we fall into fault-finding or making personal comparisons, we gravely risk seeing that need in ourselves. Your small sins are big enough to send this message: “Repent and be saved.” It’s the original come-to-Jesus moment and it plays out every day for those humble enough to confess that they need it.
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Jeff Hopper
March 5, 2018
Copyright 2018 Links Players International
The Links Daily Devotional appears Monday-Friday at www.linksplayers.com.