But “the best of men have some sin!”
Mar 11th, 2009 by Nathan White
Have you ever had one of those discussions as has happened to me before when sharing the Law with the unbeliever to demonstrate sinfulness, ‘Oh, are you telling me that you don’t sin, that you don’t also break these commandments? I try not to live an upright life; why are you better or different than me?‘
Because we are all sin, believers and unbelievers alike, the hardened unbeliever will always point to the ‘hypocritical’ church, or the fact that even the Godliest of men still have remaining sin within them as an excuse and covering for their own sin. They will argue, ‘Nobody’s perfect, right? Why is my sin, which is maybe a little more than yours, somehow puts me worse off than you?‘
To these types of objections, I found the following section of Jeremiah Burroughs’ book Hope to be very helpful:
Objection (to the preacher): “But the best of men have some sin”
Answer:
Since the best of men have some sin, therefore you hope that all is well with you? The worst of all may have some good in them, just as the saints have had some ill in them. So you hope that, notwithstanding your evil, you may go to heaven. Then I tell you that some reprobates have had more good in them than you have; and notwithstanding your good you may go to hell.
“…Never tell me of some sin in the saints as being your comfort. Rather, look upon the good that was in the wicked and reprobate, and see whether that is not more for your discouragement.”
Not only will this aid us in witnessing to others who point to the sins of saints to justify themselves, but how we should use this to check our own lives as well! Have we deeply considered all the good Mother Teresa did? Or Pope John Paul III? Or even men in scripture, such as Saul or Judas? Burroughs points out that Judas appeared to repent after betraying Jesus, and that he had previously ‘followed’ Christ for many years before his great sin.
The goodness of these people, people that from all we can tell died outside of Christ, should bring us to our knees. Oh, but for the righteousness of Christ, where would we be? Even our good works after conversion can scarcely match those of some of the greatest reprobates!
And I...
I have to agree: when I hear some Christians admit they, too, are still sinners, I don’t think they really believe it in their core. I think secretly there’s still that attitude of “thank God I am not like other men”. If they really believed it, there would be no attitude of disdain towards other fallen creatures. I see it all the time, whether it’s towards gays or people with substance abuse issues or whatever. Sometimes I wonder if it’s out of fear of knowing that they are not all that unlike those they condemn.
That’s not to say that we have no “good”, but the “good” only seems to exist as a desire to be something we are not, or aren’t quite yet.
Excellent thoughts, James. I fully agree.
Although, I do think one qualification is necessary: Jesus treated sin and sinners very well in that He ate with them and hung out with them (drunkards, prostitutes, sinners), but He did not treat false teachers in the same manner. Instead, to those perverting the word of God, He used very harsh rebukes (Luke 11:37-52).
Also, the Apostle tells us to ‘purge from your midst’ (literally, cast out) the professing Christian who lives in open sin, but NOT to separate from “sexually immoral of this world, or the greedy and swindlers, or idolaters” of this world (1 Cor 5:9-13).
And finally, in 2 John 10, John instructs the church to act very decidedly with those who bring false teaching: “do not receive him into your house or give him any greeting”.
Thus, a point I often harp on here: false or poor doctrine is *much* worse than a sinful lifestyle. Our outward sin is a reflection of what we believe (what is in our heart); doctrine defines how we live.
We condemn and speak strongly against perversions of scripture; we welcome sinners, eat and drink with them, beg and plead for them to turn to Christ, and love/serve them regardless.