THE BEST OFFENSE IS NO DEFENSE

Hosea 4:1-5:15; 2 John 1-13; Psalm 125:1-5; Proverbs 29:9-11

“The Lord has brought charges against you, saying: ‘There is no faithfulness, no kindness, no knowledge of God in your land. You make vows and break them; you kill and steal and commit adultery. There is violence everywhere—one murder after another. That is why your land is in mourning, and everyone is wasting away. Even the wild animals, the birds of the sky, and the fish of the sea are disappearing. Don’t point your finger at someone else and try to pass the blame!”

“Watch out that you do not lose what we have worked so hard to achieve. Be diligent so that you receive your full reward. Anyone who wanders away from this teaching has no relationship with God. But anyone who remains in the teaching of Christ has a relationship with both the Father and the Son. If anyone comes to your meeting and does not teach the truth about Christ, don’t invite that person into your home or give any kind of encouragement. Anyone who encourages such people becomes a partner in their evil work.”

“Those who trust in the Lord are as secure as Mount Zion; they will not be defeated but will endure forever. Just as the mountains surround Jerusalem, so the Lord surrounds his people, both now and forever.”

“Fools vent their anger, but the wise quietly hold it back.”

Sin is a personal responsibility. It’s no good to blame others, or circumstances. If we are going to call ourselves Christian, then we have to accept individual accountability for our shortcomings. This is not an especially popular position. Most folks are more than willing to encourage others to shoulder their own loads. However, we are exceedingly quick to excuse ourselves or plead extenuating circumstances whenever our own mistakes are on the table. What we miss in the process of playing the blame game is that forgiveness can never be legitimately claimed by anyone who refuses to acknowledge their own sin. Confession is an indispensible component of forgiveness. If we will not accept that we need it, it is neither possible nor logical for us to attempt to claim it.

Living in what might be the epitome of a “CYA” profession, over many years, I almost unwittingly developed a bad habit of deflecting blame. My style was not typically to shift the blame to others. I mainly just worked really hard to rationalize why what others regarded as potential problems or mistakes weren’t all that bad. Where plausible, I even went so far as to try to turn shortcomings into advantages. (As in, when I had been too forceful with an associate, focusing instead on the fact that the brief had gotten done.) Rarely, if ever, did I simply own the issue and apologize. What I did not see until it was almost too late was that my instinctive defensiveness was actually building a wall between my colleagues and me. When I got to my present position, some dubbed me a “maverick” at first; then later, I learned of my reputation as “not a team player.” Fortunately, at the same time, my wise supervisor forced me to bite the bullet. Having seen me try to divert a client’s criticism once too often, he pulled me aside and gave me some of the most valuable advice I’ve ever gotten. “Tom,” he said, “The problem is not your mistake. Everybody makes mistakes. Sophisticated clients not only realize that but accept it. The only thing to be ashamed of is trying to cover it up.” Now, I won’t extrapolate all of that into the eternal realm. Sin matters, covered up or not. Nevertheless, there is a large grain of spiritual truth in his admonition. The most shameful sin is our attempt to cover sin up. It’s futile, petty, motivated by guilt and betrays a weak faith.

Christians have nothing to fear from confession. However uncomfortable it makes us feel, feelings aren’t faith, and they can be poor indicators of truth, too. The Truth is that we can freely come before the Father to confess our sins and ask forgiveness without fear of judgment anytime we have the need, as long as we come cloaked in the Blood of Christ. There is simply no need for a cover up. Besides, in a cover up, the only ones we might be fooling are ourselves.

The next time we consider trying to foist the burdens of our errors onto someone else, we should first ask whether the job’s already been taken, and how much of what remains we can and should handle ourselves. Long ago, Christ claimed the sin and carried it all the way to the Cross. Guilt ought to be over and done with. If we claim His forgiveness through immediate confession, we are likely to find the pragmatic results of our errors can also be addressed a lot more easily, too.

It’s foolish to deny that mistakes have earthly, as well as eternal, consequences. It’s no secret the earthly consequences can seem the most immediate and severe. But problems of any sort are always easier to deal with when they are not complicated by unresolved guilt or defensiveness. Only when we are freed from such emotions is our vision truly clear enough to see other options. In certain sports, it may be true that the best offense is a good defense. If we want to get ahead in life and throughout eternity, though, Christ teaches the best offense is no defense. It just isn’t necessary for those who already know they are forgiven.