“And he spake this parable unto certain which trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and despised others:”–Luke 18:9
The author and humorist Mark Twain was not a Christian, and his disregard for faith and the things of God were well-known. One of the things that Twain hated the most, and that helped turn him away from being saved, was the hypocrisy of professing Christians he knew. Though that does not excuse his refusal of salvation, it should serve as a warning to all of us that our conduct does have a great impact on those around us. It is said that on one occasion a prominent businessman who claimed to be a Christian but was known for unscrupulous dealings told Twain, “Before I die I mean to make a pilgrimage to the Holy Land. I will climb Mount Sinai and read the Ten Commandments aloud at the top.” Twain responded, “I have a better idea. You could stay in Boston and keep them.”
The temptation to feel like we are doing well—or at least better than those around us—is so comforting that we often find ourselves giving in to it even though we should know better. When we evaluate our lives by the measure and standard of the expectations and commands of a perfectly holy God found in His Word, we quickly realize that we fall far short. God uses the metaphor of a mirror to describe the Bible. “For if any be a hearer of the word, and not a doer, he is like unto a man beholding his natural face in a glass: For he beholdeth himself, and goeth his way, and straightway forgetteth what manner of man he was” (James 1:23–24). Instead of looking around for others to whom we can compare ourselves so that we feel better, we need to allow the Scriptures to perform their cleansing and correcting work in our lives. (Daily in the Word)
