Wickedness abounds in our current era. And as lawlessness continues unabated, especially when it sets its eyes on tearing down any and everything that bears the slightest resemblance to God’s commandments, it can be quite easy for the Christian to become righteously indignant toward sinners. Christians see the evil they promote and celebrate, feel the weight of persecution of God’s people, and want to act in response. The issue at hand, however, is how Christians should respond and what is the motivation of the heart in doing so. Those who live unrighteously live in rank rebellion, but Christians must not delude themselves into believing they are better because they seek to obey Christ. They must not speak to sinners arrogantly or condescendingly as though they are beneath a Christian’s exalted state. Christians still struggle with and commit sins before the Lord and those sins are not somehow better than the sins of the unredeemed. Therefore, Christians must not become haughty when dealing with the world.

Jesus addressed this kind of prideful thinking in his parable of the Pharisee and the tax collector (Luke 18:9-14). In this passage, Christ compares the prayers of the two men. The Pharisee speaks with evident pride over his accomplishments and outward obedience to the Mosaic law. He is so confident of his own superiority that he actually thanks God that he is not like several sinners, including, “extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector” (v. 11). The Pharisee has evaluated his abilities to be over an above the lowly sinner to the point he sees himself as deserving some kind or merit and recognition from God. By comparison, the tax collector, seeing the vileness of his own sin cannot even look to Heaven while he prays, “God, be merciful to me, a sinner!” (v. 13). Jesus explains that it was the humble tax collector who went home justified, not the arrogant Pharisee.

In the Christian life, especially at a time when depravity is celebrated publicly, there is a very real danger of seeing oneself the way the Pharisee did. Those who proclaim Christ as Lord understand how much God hates sin. Christians know that God is holy and righteous; he cannot allow sin to stand in his sight. Therefore, those in Christ seek to live in obedience to God’s commandments when the rest of the world is warring against him. This puts Christianity in direct conflict with a world that wants to live in open disobedience to God, treating all vice as virtue. It sets up two competing worldviews that seek to influence the culture: the biblical worldview which exalts Christ and his word and the worldview of man which seeks to codify sin as virtuous. With this war of worldviews occurring, Christians easily fall into an “us vs. them” mindset where they are the “good guys” and sinners are the evil “bad guys” to be defeated. Rather than seeing the lost as those to be evangelized and redeemed, Christians can be guilty of seeing them as an enemy to be conquered.

If sinners are merely enemies to be overwhelmed, Christians may begin to view themselves as better people. Instead of remembering the place from where God took them – stuck the muck and mire of their sins awaiting his wrath, adopting them into his family by grace through Christ – they may end up seeing only themselves as naturally righteous and deserving of God’s merit. Such an attitude kills compassion and love for the lost. Like the Pharisee, the Christian then looks at the sinner with disdain, seeing them as being fit only for God’s judgment, with no love extended and no mercy offered. Christians may deem the sins of the unsaved as so vile, so putrid that there is no place for them in God’s kingdom. Therefore, why should they show any kind of grace or kindness to sinners? Why should sinners not feel anything but their stinging rebuke, seeking to shame them into darkness rather than calling them out into the light? This was just what the Pharisee in Christ’s parable sought to do, exalt himself at the expense of the tax collector.

However, Christ has called Christians to something entirely different. In Matthew 7:1-5, a passage all too often misused (which is a matter for another article), Jesus commands his hearers to judge with righteous judgment, not with hypocrisy. Christ condemns judgment of another’s brother that does not first come with a rigorous examination of oneself. He tells his disciples, “You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother’s eye” (V. 5). Christians are called to first see their own sinfulness before God, confessing and repenting with regularity before God. Such an examination forces them to remember that there is nothing good within their flesh and that they are made righteous only by the grace of God himself. It humbles hearts and causes them to see their sins of others in light of the cross. Yes, those who stand in opposition to God are currently his enemies who deserve his righteous wrath; however, “such were some of you” (see 1 Cor. 9-11). Instead of seeing sinners as enemies to be vanquished, Christians must see them as they once were, rebels in dire need of a Savior. Judgment of others, when done rightly, causes Christians to view sinners with deep compassion, driving them to lead the unredeemed to Christ.

Christians must remember that, apart from Christ, we are sinners deserving of Hell. We have been redeemed, not because of our innate goodness, but because of God’s gracious lovingkindness. Though we are redeemed, we are not free from sin. We will continue to war against this flesh until Christ comes and brings us into glory. Therefore, the only difference between ourselves and the wicked of this world is Christ. Our sins are not better sins than those in the world commit. Our sins are just as wicked. The only difference is that our sins were already paid for at the cross. It is this difference that should humble us, lead us to further repentance, and drive us to lead the lost to Christ. While sinners are indeed enemies of God he will one day vanquish, we are called to be his messengers to preach the message of reconciliation until he comes again. Let this guide us in our response to the wicked sinners of this world.

Note: This article was also published at X.com