“Everyone who sins breaks the law; in fact, sin is lawlessness.” – 1 John 3:4
As we tread on these trying times, when everyone is trying to act right or trying to push their own opinions as something that the world should accept because they think it’s right, let us go back to the real reason why we have law and why we have a basis on what to follow. We are all sinful, no one is righteous and there is no one who is right enough to redeem themselves. Paul even wrote in one of his letters that there is no one who is righteous but only the Son of God who came to save us and imputed His righteousness on us. Now, everyone who sins breaks the law, and that is not situational because we are sinful. No one is above the other person and no one is under another person.
God did not give us the law so that we can act right or so that we can claim that we are above it. God gave us the law so that it will point us to our sins. Thus so that whoever sins will break the law because we are sinful and we have always been breaking the law. Person A is not better than Person B just because he or she is better at understanding a situation or the law. Both are in need of God’s grace and mercy because both sinned in their own way and broke the law. After all, sin means lawlessness. John carefully explained that sin is indeed lawlessness because why would we sin if we understand the law, right? Well then it is because we are sinful by nature and that we cannot stop sinning because that’s what we desire the most.
Therefore, we need God’s grace and mercy to change this nature. The law is there to point us to our sin and make us see that we are indeed sinful. We are not righteous just because we know more than other people know. Neither are we better than other people because we make right decisions in life. At the end of the day, we are sinful and we need God’s grace and forgiveness so that we will be saved. Again, no one or nothing can save us aside from Christ– not our ideologies, not our lifestyle, not even our charities can keep us away from the impending fires of condemnation. Only through Christ that we are saved and be called righteous.
Thus, we have no right to say anything against our brothers and sisters that they are choosing wrong or that they are dumbly following something stupid. We all have sinned and fall short in the glory of God. We are not “more” righteous than other people because we are smart, but we are all the same sinners who are begging for scraps of bread under our Master’s table. Instead of condemning other people, guide them in the path of the Lord, and let God show them His love and mercy. Again, everyone who sins breaks the law, therefore we are all lawbreakers and lawless people. So, we all need God’s mercy, grace and forgiveness.
