The human being, with all of his inheritance from Adam, is incurably addicted to making excuses. This was forcibly brought to my attention by a news item from Vancouver, British Columbia. A man was sentenced to jail for one year for breaking into a cafe in the middle of the night. He was caught red-handed inside the cafe with the cash register open. Nevertheless, he protested his innocence in court, and even when he was sentenced, departed for jail claiming that he was the victim of circumstances.
Some time ago a Christian approached me after a meeting and said, "I am worried because I am not worried about my sins." The phrase is a startling one, and should lead each of us to examine our spiritual status before the Lord. Worry, in itself, is a sin, because it is a lack of faith. The Quakers recognized long ago, however, that there is a spiritual emotion which is not exactly worry that is perfectly proper in the life of a Christian. The Quakers called this "a concern," and it is common in their circles to hear them say, "I am concerned about this or that.
The Manchester Guardian once ran a literary contest which involved writing a new ending for Shakespeare's famed tragedy Hamlet. Contestants were to present a synopsis for "a better last act." All of the contestants kept Hamlet alive, and some had the heroine return after her "death" in the previous act and state that she had only been in a trance, or that she had been feigning death to see if Hamlet really loved her. Each of the entries involved some artful device to insure a perfect, happy ending. Thus man seeks to change life and make it something different than it really is.
A controversy once raged in the columns of a British newspaper as a result of an article by a well-known clergyman, who said that there are times when we have to choose a path of evil, that sometimes there is no right choice to be made. He gave several examples. "A close friend gives me a present for which I have no liking or use. Shall I wound his feelings by saying so, or shall I, if not by words at least by actions, deceive him? A trifling clash between the duty of truth-telling and the duty of love, but nonetheless a clash."
One of the worst of all sins, worse than theft, adultery, or murder, is the sin of wanting one's own way. It is the desiring of one's own way which leads to every other sin in the world. The shortest definition of sin is "I will," and when Lucifer spoke those words (Isa. 14:13, 14) sin thereby entered the universe. Whenever man says, "I will," with a desire which is in opposition to God's will, he, too, is in the midst of sin.
