I am a Hypocrite!

     In my house I constantly hear one child say to the other, “Who are you to tell me that I shouldn’t do this, when you do that same thing all the time?”

     I hear the same childish rhetoric regarding Kentucky clerk Kim Davis for not issuing marriage licenses to same sex couples.  “She obviously doesn’t care about marriage since she has been married four times!”  “She should just shut her mouth and quit her job!”  Didn’t Jesus say “He who is without sin, cast the first stone?”  Didn’t he also say “Take the log out of your own eye before removing the speck out of someone else’s eye?” 

     How many times Kim Davis has been married is irrelevant to whether or not she should be forced to endorse same-sex marriages.  Ironically, her divorces happened before she became a Christian which make the “hypocrite” attack irrelevant as well. 

The deeper issue is “Where does moral authority come from?”

How do we ever have the moral authority to say anything is wrong, 

if we have to be sinless first?  

I have lied before.  Does that make me a hypocrite for saying that lying is wrong?  

I have stolen before.  Does that disqualify me from saying that stealing is wrong?

Christians are giving into moral relativism if we think that our own 

spotless moral performance is what qualifies us to communicate moral standards! 

Moral standards exist independently of anyone's failure or ability to meet them.

If sinless perfection is the standard to be able to declare a behavior right or wrong than Jesus is the only human being who has ever lived who is able to speak authoritatively. 

I think we just discovered the answer to our question.  

Moral authority comes from God’s perfect moral character.  

Morality must be based upon something independent of humanity 

or it is just my opinion against yours. 

Unfortunately, that is what our society has been reduced to.  

We think that one opinion about morality is just as valid as any other. 

What did Jesus mean when he said, “He who is without sin, cast the first stone?”  You may be familiar with the story.  Religious leaders catch a woman in adultery and ask Jesus if she should be stoned.  There is no debate here about whether adultery is right or wrong, but what her punishment should be. 

When Jesus said “Take the log out of your own eye, before removing the speck out of your brother’s eye” he was talking about being judgmental of other believers.

I have no idea what Kim Davis’ motivation is for refusing to issue marriage licenses to same sex couples.  The religious right thinks she is a hero and the liberal left think that she is the devil.  I don’t think that she is either.  I think that she simply didn’t want her name on marriage licenses issued to same sex couples, and had the courage to stand up for what she knew was right. 

So if moral authority really does come from God, 

my moral opinion or even my failure to uphold His moral laws doesn’t change anything!  

We are quickly becoming a society where we want to make up our own morality.  We are sick of Christians reminding us of pesky things like God’s moral law.  We wish they would just shut up and stop “imposing their beliefs on everyone else.” 

The problem is that if we are to really take the words of Jesus seriously, he also stated that God intended marriage to be between a man and a woman.  But I guess he was a “hypocrite” for saying so since he never got married!