A Double Standard
It was great to be back with the guys at the 5 AM Bible study on the Gospel of John this morning. I was away with my wife, Chris, last week for our anniversary. I did not think I would get to be there this morning either, but we changed our schedule, and it was wonderful to be there and study God's Word with these faithful Christian men.
This morning I pointed out a double standard in John 18:22. Jesus was slapped by one of the officers of the High Priest for his answer to Annas. The officer seemed to say that Jesus was being disrespectful or that His answer was not sincere. Therefore, he took it upon himself to hit Jesus. There are two problems here. It was not lawful to hit someone who was not guilty of a crime, and Jesus had not been convicted of anything. Also, Jesus had given a completely true answer in a good way, so He was not guilty of being a smart aleck or not respecting the High Priest. So, why did this happen? Sometimes, people get angry at someone, and they feel justified in treating them badly, even though what they do is wrong. Just like in Jesus' case many times the other person hasn't really done anything wrong either, but they still get punished or criticised. Has this ever happened to you? I know it has happened to me many times. People tend to hold Christians to a higher standard, and they think they can go by another standard. That amounts to a double standard. That is wrong in any situation. Jesus was right to reply the way He did. He asked the man to specifically tell Him where He had done evil. The man did not reply, because there was no sin involved. He just did not like Jesus' answer. I think we can learn from Jesus' answer how we can reply to people who try to hold us to a double standard. We don't need to be mean spirited. We can just point out the need for equal justice for all.
Tomorrow, I intend to read Psalms 119:89-176 and I Corinthians 8.
This morning I pointed out a double standard in John 18:22. Jesus was slapped by one of the officers of the High Priest for his answer to Annas. The officer seemed to say that Jesus was being disrespectful or that His answer was not sincere. Therefore, he took it upon himself to hit Jesus. There are two problems here. It was not lawful to hit someone who was not guilty of a crime, and Jesus had not been convicted of anything. Also, Jesus had given a completely true answer in a good way, so He was not guilty of being a smart aleck or not respecting the High Priest. So, why did this happen? Sometimes, people get angry at someone, and they feel justified in treating them badly, even though what they do is wrong. Just like in Jesus' case many times the other person hasn't really done anything wrong either, but they still get punished or criticised. Has this ever happened to you? I know it has happened to me many times. People tend to hold Christians to a higher standard, and they think they can go by another standard. That amounts to a double standard. That is wrong in any situation. Jesus was right to reply the way He did. He asked the man to specifically tell Him where He had done evil. The man did not reply, because there was no sin involved. He just did not like Jesus' answer. I think we can learn from Jesus' answer how we can reply to people who try to hold us to a double standard. We don't need to be mean spirited. We can just point out the need for equal justice for all.
Tomorrow, I intend to read Psalms 119:89-176 and I Corinthians 8.