He looks with disdain on the Churchers,
Recoiling at the sick hypocrisy he sees.
And he wants nothing to do with it—
With the Churching, that is.
But let us notice that
His objection to the hypocrisy itself
Is just an ad hoc objection,
And not a categorical one.
For he himself will play the hypocrite
Many times over in his life
By falling short in practice of principles
That he has acclaimed on the record
And by transgressing what he has said
Ought not be transgressed.
The hypocrisy of the Churchers, then,
Has served him with an excuse
To discount those vestigial Bible principles
They still venture to recite as good
But neglect too often themselves.
And neither he
Nor the Churchers he disdains
Are the better in this,
For neither lives a life
Marked by regular self-correction
Toward what they know to be good,
But by excuse.
And he looks down on them.
And they on him.
And neither repairs himself
As do those few
Who are actually listening.
…with the judgment you pronounce you will be judged, and with the measure you use it will be measured to you.
Jesus. Matthew 7:2
Who can be safe from such a judgment, but the one who constrains himself to do what he knows it right? For we all see (most of) the bad that is done to us, and judge it as badness. What escape is there, then, if we do these same things ourselves, having already declared them bad? Have we not already condemned ourselves by our own right judgment?
But many want to skip the self-correction part, and just move straight to the part where God is expected to forgive their sins. Interestingly, though, there are not many among them who will believe that God forgives the sins of the atheist without his self-correction taking place first. He must correct himself, they will think, to whatever is their standard of faith (even if it is just the scantest belief, such as that “Jesus is lord.”)—else, he cannot be saved. But meanwhile, they themselves are not subject to any further standard (they think) than what they suppose that they have already satisfied in their religion. Let another man’s idea of faith be more robust than their own, and they may well count him a heretic for pointing out their shortcomings.
So whoever knows the right thing to do and fails to do it, for him it is sin.
James 4:17. ESV
Who is the man who thinks his religious principle actually worthy of practice?
