Numbers on the Foreheads

If on the forehead of every human there were magically to appear a number in neon red—from zero to ten—put there by God himself to show to the world in undeniable terms how much each person cares about God, I suppose that half or more of the collective pressure of pretense in this world would immediately vanish—supplanted by surrendered shame in some cases, and humble vindication in others.

As it is, however, we have no such forehead displays, and must draw our conclusions about how much people care about God by other means.

And what should we expected from this, but that the number assigned to Billy’s care for God would vary greatly, depending on what person was assigning him a number? And a person God himself might consider to be, say, an 8, would surely consider different evidences, and have different sensibilities about it all, than would the person God considers a 2. That is to say that not all would be judged by the same objective test.

And I suppose that those with the lower numbers would be more likely to cheat in the scoring—both of themselves and of others.

Is this not how it works, with the less-mature people being the more likely to overrate themselves and to underrate those who God rates higher?

⁹ To some who were confident of their own righteousness and looked down on everyone else, Jesus told this parable: ¹⁰ “Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. ¹¹ The Pharisee stood by himself and prayed: ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other people—robbers, evildoers, adulterers—or even like this tax collector. ¹² I fast twice a week and give a tenth of all I get.’

¹³ “But the tax collector stood at a distance. He would not even look up to heaven, but beat his breast and said, ‘God, have mercy on me, a sinner.’

¹⁴ “I tell you that this man, rather than the other, went home justified before God. For all those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.”

Luke 18:9-14. NIV

Jesus laid it out in no uncertain terms which man scored better in the eyes of God. And it was the second man, and not the first, whose prayer took into account his own failings. Meanwhile, the first man was busy cherrypicking from all his own behaviors those that seemed most likely to score well, while also showing his competitive heart in regard to others.

And I should note that some, being aware of this parable, will be careful not to compare themselves of others, but won’t be careful in their own self-viewing not to cherrypick, ignoring some of their failures in things that God thinks are important. In other words, they seem to care enough to get half the lesson of this parable, and not the whole thing—and even so, they will very likely score themselves somewhere in the 5-10 range in a default self-approving view.

And many are not alone in such practice, but enlist the help of churches who teach them how to do it. And they do it on the individual level, and also on the camp level, with attitudes such as “If you’re a member of this church, you’re OK with God”—whether they say it aloud, or just think it silently. And we should be careful to note that that’s just another form of cherrypicking, for surely, God is concerned about many more things than whether or where one goes to church.

Meanwhile, there are some camps who teach their members to score themselves low, but to pretend that this is OK, since they will not (they say) be judged by Jesus on account of their character and their deeds—as Jesus judged the Pharisee in the parable. Rather, they count themselves exempt from judgment, ignoring several passages of scripture, such as this one:

For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each of us may receive what is due us for the things done while in the body, whether good or bad.

2 Corinthians 5:10. NIV

All these variations in how people judge themselves (and others) are facilitated by the fact that there is no God-determined number on our foreheads.

I have much more to say (and to learn) about this, but I’ll end with this excerpt from one of the most amazing chapters in the Bible, for I think it is wholly relevant to this post:

²⁰ Woe to those who call evil good
    and good evil,
who put darkness for light
    and light for darkness,
who put bitter for sweet
    and sweet for bitter.
²¹ Woe to those who are wise in their own eyes
    and clever in their own sight.

Isaiah 5:20-21. NIV