Get Yourself In Line

Luke 10:29 But he, willing to justify himself, said unto Jesus, And who is my neighbour?

It would be refreshing to run across someone, including myself, who isn't busy trying to justify themselves at every turn.

To justify means to line things up perfectly. Picture a mason using his plumb line to get all of his bricks into uniformity. If one brick is laid wrong, it could mess up the integrity of the wall or at least ruin the aesthetics of the structure. That brick has to be justified or brought back in line with all the others.

We have a God who is well equipped and capable of justifying us, we dare not try it ourselves. We are not good masons when it comes to our own foibles.

I mean, what if we just owned up to our miscues, confessed them, learned from them, received forgiveness from the Lord and moved on? Instead, we do more damage by offering lame excuses for why we just had to sin.

I bricked part of our church building on my own, with no prior experience. The people were sure nice when they, "ahem," complimented me on my work. What a mess!

Silly us!