Centered

People need to have standards. We must have something to gauge the circumstances and people around us to make sense of things. The only question is, what is the source of the standards? Other faiths have their books and leaders as references to define their views of reality. Secularists glean their standards from various worldly philosophies or their fallen, faulty, and wavering opinions. As believers, ours come from the Bible, especially the example of Jesus.

No matter the century, decade, or day, Jesus and His Gospel are the most reliable guides for our decisions and world perspective. They do not change. The definitions of right and wrong disseminated by rejectors of the unchanging standards of God do change. The morals of mortals swing from one extreme to the other.

On one end of the spectrum are those who think God’s principles aren’t stringent enough. These are legalists who reject the standard of grace. They only believe in righteousness they can earn and maintain—they deem anything else as not being from God.

On the other side of the scale are those who see God’s values as overly restrictive to their freedom. Therefore, they reject the idea of God telling them what to do. Consequently, they effectively become their own gods of virtue.

During Jesus’ earthly ministry, He dealt with people representing both ends of the spectrum. In first-century Greek and Hebrew cultures, there were plenty of each. So one might assume that Jesus would focus on the pagans, the atheistic and idolatrous ones. Isn’t that what we would do? But instead, Christ had the most to say about the religious people of His faith.

Jesus confronted those who thought He was a rule-breaker. His standards were not rigid enough for them. They believed Jesus was blasphemous because He taught that faith in Him was enough to put them in a right relationship with God. They also had a big problem with His obvious claims to be God.

The Scribes and Pharisees cried blasphemy because Jesus threatened their self-created righteousness and control of others. They had fashioned commandments that turned God’s standards into an untenable burden. These were synthetic rules that even their authors could not keep. So, they faked it and broke the rules while demanding that others keep them. Therefore, Jesus rightly branded them as hypocrites.

We can look at the extremes of legalism and license and thank God it’s not us. But before we assume too quickly, it may be wise to truthfully analyze how we view others. One problem the religious elite of Jesus’ day had was their propensity to look at others without looking in the mirror.

The Lord warned about judging others. He also condemned the religious leaders for having a distorted view of themselves. He described these self-righteous ones as hypocrites who were “like whitewashed tombs which on the outside appear beautiful, but inside they are full of dead men’s bones and all uncleanness” (Matthew 23:27). Not what we want Jesus to say about us!

Let’s do some self-assessment. The goal would be to identify where we are on the spectrum described above. The ultimate objective is to find ourselves standing right at the center rather than judging where others might stand. Let’s seek to stand with the One who is at the center of all things, the One who forgives, even forgiving the extremes of legalism and license.

“Jesus said to them, ‘It is not those who are healthy who need a physician, but those who are sick; I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners.’” —Mark 2:17