Am I In The Wrong?

Psalm 139:23 Search me, O God, and know my heart: try me, and know my thoughts.

This should be our continual prayer. If we are to enter the kingdom. One trick the devil likes to play on humanity is “the blame game”. The devil will always push people, when they’re in the wrong, to blame someone else. This is something inherited from Satan. Satan’s continual mission is to justify himself and push the blame on God. Instead of Satan to say “i’m in the wrong” he continued his path of iniquity. Ezekiel 28:15 “Thou [Satan] wast perfect in thy ways from the day that thou wast created, till iniquity was found in thee”. God didn’t create a defective angel. That angel used his own free will thoughts to disobey. Satan inspires humans to make the same mistake he made, instead of finding blame with themselves, he gets them to push the blame on others. 

In the garden 

When Adam and Eve ate of the tree of knowledge. The Lord visited them and said unto them Genesis 3:9 “And the Lord God called unto Adam, and said unto him, Where art thou?” Is the Lord really calling out to Adam because he can’t find him? No. He’s giving Adam a chance to confess his wrong. Adam replies Genesis 3:10 “…I heard thy voice in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked; and I hid myself”. Adam was afraid because he knew what he did was wrong. To which the Lord asks Genesis 3:11 “… Who told thee that thou wast naked? Hast thou eaten of the tree, whereof I commanded thee that thou shouldest not eat?” When the Lord asked Adam where are you, Adam should’ve confessed then. Now the Lord has questioned Adam to the point where he must confess. This is where Adam uses Satanic methods to try and get himself out of trouble. Instead of Adam saying “I ate the fruit” he says Genesis 3:12 “…The woman whom thou gavest to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I did eat”. Did you catch that? Adam says “The woman YOU [God] gave to me, SHE gave me the tree” and that’s what made him eat. Adam in one sentence blames the Lord and blames Eve for why he disobeyed. He takes no responsibility. The problem is, if Adam won’t admit that he disobeyed, he can’t be corrected. If we don’t believe we’ve done something wrong, how can we fix our actions? Eve also used the same Satanic methods saying Genesis 3:13 “…The serpent beguiled me, and I did eat”. Following her husband’s evil example, she pushes the blame as well. They were both punished and exiled from the garden. The Lord gave them a chance to repent but they didn’t.

While we may look upon Adam and Eve and think “why did you do that?”, “don’t eat the tree” or “just confess”. We have our own sins that we know we could’ve avoided. We won’t be able to say to the Lord, “If Adam and Eve didn’t sin, I wouldn’t have stolen from that bank!” Adam and Eve are long gone they aren’t affecting our individual actions. Adam isn’t the reason we fornicate, lie, cheat or steal. If a murder came to court and said “My father left me and did drugs and that’s why I ended up a murderer and killed that man” we know that’s not a good enough excuse. Hence our sins cannot be pushed off to Satan or our first parents. The set of questions the Lord can silence us with are simple and convicting. Let’s say we took his name in vain, he could just say “did I command you to take my name in vain?” To which we would reply “No” To which the Lord can say “Why did you take my name in vain if that’s the case”.  Any other answer apart from “I wanted to” would be a lie.

The scribe who sought to justify himself 

There was a scribe who came to Jesus to tempt him. Luke 10:25 “And, behold, a certain lawyer stood up, and tempted him, saying, Master, what shall I do to inherit eternal life? 26 He [Jesus] said unto him, What is written in the law? how readest thou? 27 And he [the scribe] answering said, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy strength, and with all thy mind; and thy neighbour as thyself. 28 And he [Jesus] said unto him, Thou hast answered right: this do, and thou shalt live”.

Jesus got the scribe to answer from his own mouth what he must do. The scribe knew that he wasn’t loving his neighbour and felt convicted. Instead of saying to himself “Why am I offended”, “what should I change”, “where can I improve”, “let me pray to God for help” this is what happens next: Luke 10:29 “But he, willing to justify himself, said unto Jesus, And who is my neighbour?”

Then Jesus teaches him through a parable to open his mind. Luke 10:30 “And Jesus answering said, A certain man went down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and fell among thieves, which stripped him of his raiment, and wounded him, and departed, leaving him half dead. 31 And by chance there came down a certain priest that way: and when he saw him, he passed by on the other side. 32 And likewise a Levite, when he was at the place, came and looked on him, and passed by on the other side. 33 But a certain Samaritan, as he journeyed, came where he was: and when he saw him, he had compassion on him. Luke 10:36 Which now of these three, thinkest thou, was neighbour unto him that fell among the thieves? 37 And he said, He that shewed mercy on him. Then said Jesus unto him, Go, and do thou likewise”. The Samaritans were not Jewish or Israelite in blood, but they lived near the Jews and there were tensions between them and the Jews. Jesus showed the scribe that even borders between ethnicities don’t exist when it comes to the command of loving thy neighbour. Are we like the scribe? Is there a commandment where we try to justify ourselves? For example if the Bible says don’t lie, do we then say “but what’s a lie?”. The Lord says don’t fornicate, do we then say “Technically we’re like a married couple because we live together”?

The Pharisees hated correction and their sins being brought to light as well. Jesus was teaching them that you can’t serve God and money. This annoyed the Pharisees who loved money and were covetous. Luke 16:13-15 “No servant can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon.14 And the Pharisees also, who were covetous, heard all these things: and they derided him”. At this point the Pharisees should stop and think “where have we strayed from God, let us repent”. Instead, self-justification was initiated and they attacked Jesus for his clear convicting teaching.  Luke 16:15 “And he said unto them, Ye are they which justify yourselves before men; but God knoweth your hearts: for that which is highly esteemed among men is abomination in the sight of God”. This may be similar to when it is taught we must tithe in church, at this point some may question the 10% number and say “is it 10% of income after tax or before tax” whilst this question can come from a lack of understanding, as many have never tithed before, it can also come from a heart which isn’t fully in line with the things of God. Desiring to hold on to money rather than giving to the things of God. Instead of concealing our wrongs we should change them. If Jesus said today you can’t serve God and money, some Christians who like money and are trying to establish businesses, in order to conceal their love of money may make mention of how “money isn’t evil”, missing the point. Whilst this it is true that money is just an object, in our generation we will reach a point in time where we can’t buy and sell, so if you planned on having riches on earth forever you aren’t planning on being in the kingdom.

First find your own faults

Whilst we should help our brothers who are in a fault in the spirit of meekness, we should make sure the beam is removed from our eyes first. Matthew 7:3 “And why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brother's eye, but considerest not the beam that is in thine own eye? 4 Or how wilt thou say to thy brother, Let me pull out the mote out of thine eye; and, behold, a beam is in thine own eye? 5 Thou hypocrite, first cast out the beam out of thine own eye; and then shalt thou see clearly to cast out the mote out of thy brother's eye”. We often may be quick to find the faults of others but never looking within to find problems with ourselves. This can result in us becoming hypocrites. Like Adam we may say someone else caused us to sin whilst guilty of that same sin. 

Whenever you find yourself in the wrong acknowledge it, repent to God and ask for strength from him to overcome that wrong and move on. Do not justify yourself and carry on. Exodus 23:7 “Keep thee far from a false matter; and the innocent and righteous slay thou not: for I will not justify the wicked”.

I pray you’ve been blessed by this study and will not seek self-justification. Maranatha!