‘What is written in the Law?’ he replied. ‘How do you read it?’
He answered, ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind’; and, ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’
‘You have answered correctly,’ Jesus replied. ‘Do this and you will live.’
But he wanted to justify himself, so he asked Jesus, ‘And who is my neighbor?’ (Luke 10:25-29 NIV)
I once had a student e-mail me asking if going to bars was wrong. She wrote that other Christians had been critical of her, but she didn’t see anything wrong with it. And then she added, “Jesus hung out with people who drank.” With that, she joined the expert in the law and so many others who seek to justify their behavior by adapting a biblical truth to fit their own desires.
The student wanted to go out to the bars, not because she sought to minister to “sinners” like Jesus (Luke 5:30-32), but because she wanted to be like her friends and do what they did without guilt. So by citing what Jesus did, she sought to justify her behavior, just as the expert of the law did. He was steeped in legalism, and so after answering Jesus’ question with the two greatest commandments, he wanted Jesus to break down His meaning of “neighbor” because when we parse the meanings of words, it is easier to find loopholes by which we hope to justify behavior that deep down we know is wrong. With His parable of the Good Samaritan, Jesus eliminated the loophole he was looking for.
Justification comes easily to us. In our hearts, we so often want to do what we want to do, so we seek to find ways to justify doing it. I know a woman who wants to do what she wants right now and is justifying herself by saying God wants her to live in freedom. He indeed does call us to freedom (Galatians 5:1), but she is conveniently avoiding the biblical fact this freedom has limits (Galatians 5:13; I Corinthians 10:23) because she wants to live without restraint or obligation.
We also employ justification when we are caught in sin, by seeking to minimize it in some way. I struggle when sometimes disagreeing with my wife. My response sometimes is too harsh, but I have a tendency to justify myself by blaming her for how she says something. People caught viewing porn will often say, “It’s not really a problem for me like it is for other people." I have had unmarried couples who have spent the night with each other tell me “nothing really happened.”
Another common justification in response to knowing we should do something when in fact we just don’t want to do it is, “ I’m too busy.” We find plenty of time to do the things we want to do, but when it comes to things that in our hearts we don’t want to do, this becomes a convenient way to justify not doing it.
Today, think about in what ways you attempt to justify sinful behavior. It’s not that you don’t do it, but, instead, what are you going to do about it?
© Jim Musser 2016
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