‘You Are Wrong!’

The sheer number of times that phrase runs through our mind is sometimes near endless, and we are just talking about in a single day.

We are right, scratch that, we are ALWAYS right, and sadly, everyone else is always wrong. May the good Lord have mercy on us. What’s maybe even worse is the fact that we feel this unquenchable urge to ensure that others know just how wrong they are, as often as possible. “I mean, don’t they have to know that they are a more unfortunate case than we are? No? How then are we going to pamper that lovely misplaced ego of ours?“

“No! You are getting us wrong!“, “We are not pointing out all the observable errors of others because we want to make them feel we are better than them. We just do it so they can know where their errors are, and change.” – How gracious of you. I honestly am not even sure which is worse off; enjoying putting people down for the exposed errors they have or defending the reason why it is done. Do you really expect your ‘gracious‘ pointing out of people’s errors to cause them to change? Do you really think all it takes to stop a criminal from his criminal career is to let him/her know just how ‘bad‘ being a criminal is? Do you think you can get someone addicted to methamphetamine to become sober by letting him/her know just how ‘bad‘ it is to be an addict to hard drugs? Do you think you can get someone suffering from depression to ‘snap out of it‘ by letting him/her know just how ‘uncool‘ it is to be depressed? Do you think what it would take to get a sex addict to quit the unhealthy lifestyle is by letting him/her know how ‘unhelpful‘ it is to be promiscuous? You think people don’t know things they should and shouldn’t do, and you are the one to bring these things to their knowledge? Humans aren’t robots that can be programmed with a set of instructions that you get into them. Humans are way more complicated than that.

So am I saying that people should not be told the truth? This is a very sensitive matter. To simplify, if your opinion was sought after, concerning a matter by someone involved in the matter, or if in anyway you were directly affected by the matter, then yes. If your opinion was not sought after by someone involved in the matter, or if you were not in anyway directly affected by the matter, then no. Yet, your opinion being sought after or you being directly affected doesn’t justify a condemning or condescending mindset whilst pointing out truth – else, even you have started to also indulge sin. A good example of this can be seen in John 8: 1-11. Jesus, God the Son, who was and is always in the Spirit, knew all things. He knew the woman committing adultery was guilty of adultery, yet, that didn’t make Him go to her house to point that out or make mocking remarks at her whenever He maybe saw her on the streets. He also knew that those condemning her were in the wrong, yet, He didn’t walk up to them to let them know just how evil they were in their hypocrisy. He only gave an opinion when the question was posed to Him, and righteous as ever, He was in full mercy. Several other references can be found for this (Proverbs 29: 11, Proverbs 21: 23, Proverbs 29: 11, etc.) Proverbs 14: 9 likens people who mock at sin to be fools. Funnily, even when you are asked, depending on who is asking and the reason for asking, your answers should also not be too hasty (Proverbs 26: 4), otherwise you make an error. In all, you can only point out the truth righteously if you are following the leading of the Spirit indwelling you as a Christian.

How do we interact with people who aren’t Christian concerning right or wrong? The ideologies of non-Christians are dependent on a number of very tricky factors, from political rightness to culture, tradition or society, so it is also unhelpful to try to force opinions of truth down their throats. Non-Christians that are open can be encouraged to undertake the journey of Christianity, from which they can begin to discover these truths for themselves.

In summary, you are not better than anyone else (Mark 10: 18 ). You are not perfect or righteous by your works. All we have is righteousness that issues from Christ’s mercy. We all have sinned, and still sin, just in different ways. You cannot correct habits by instructing people to drop the habits. The law exists to prove to us that we cannot fulfill the requirements of righteousness, so by your willing, you cannot fulfill the righteous requirements of the law; you and those you condemn (Zechariah 4: 6). Only one can stop us from committing evil, this one is the Lord. The more of Him we take into ourselves, the lesser our interests in whatever evils we once and do still indulge. If you righteously want to help someone or yourself out of evil, especially habitual ones, help that person or yourself find God.