“Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but think of yourself with sober judgment, according to the measure of faith God has given you.” Rom 12:3

Thinking soberly, I realize that fault happens on many levels. Fault happens in the motives, and attitudes, and thoughts, and in the deeds. Fault can be committed by the sin of commission or by the sin of omission. Commission sins are the things I shouldn’t have done. Omission sins are the things I should have done. How thoroughly have I examined myself to discover if my motives, my attitudes, and my efforts are entirely correct and blameless? The difficulty of judging all of this is great so that it’s practically impossible to say I’m entirely innocent and you are entirely at fault.

Humility, repentance, and forgiveness is what we need to pursue. Even if you are a tower of virtue and the example of Christ, if you looked closer, going to God in prayer, and meditated on God’s Word, you would probably admit, “I should have tried a little harder.” And, “I was as patient as I could have been.” And, “God might not say I was entirely without blame in the matter.”

My point is not to dismiss people from the wrongdoing they do. People need to repent. But this kind of repentant heart starts with God’s people. If we have the thoughtful and reflective heart to first look at ourselves and take part of the blame, there just might be more good done.

None of us is perfect. Though we are to strive to be perfect (Mt 5:48), still we aren’t perfect. We love and serve. But still we aren’t perfect. So why when we readily acknowledge our imperfection do we insist we did nothing wrong. Let’s go ahead and take some blame. Maybe it isn’t the major part of the blame. But still take the blame that is yours.

Said in love.