Just to take a pause in the reading of Acts for a day, I flipped over to Proverbs and landed in chapter 20.  And, in reading this...I landed on verse 10:

10 Unequal weights and unequal measures

are both alike an abomination to the Lord.

The reason I paused here, and the thought that came to mind really relates back to what we’ve been reading about in Acts.  In Acts, Paul and Peter (and all of the apostles, obviously) are teaching that we are free from the burden of the Law, the Law handed down by God through Moses.  God laid out the way in which we are to earn His approval with this Law, and 1500 years of human history from the time of Moses to the time of Jesus essentially proved that none of us could pull it off.  None of us could earn God’s approval.  That means ALL of us, by definition, fell short, and would fall short today.  All of us.  The reason I think it is important to pause on that, and to reflect on that, is because it is our human nature that tends to want to draw us into a mode of comparison.  We look around and we get our sense of ‘okay-ness’ from those around us...by comparison.  And, we often take that comparison into our spiritual lives...when we feel like we’ve been good, we feel comfortable approaching God in prayer.  When we feel like we’ve been bad, we don’t.  All-the-while, we are missing two very important facts: (1) we are always bad and never good when compared to the only standard that God has ever given us, and (2) God wants us to look at Him for our sense of ‘okay-ness’, not others.

And here is the thing that is so insidious about comparison.  I find that most Christians can be broadly placed into 2 categories - those that lean on Grace (which is most of us rebellious types) and those who rely on fairness/Law (which are those people who were (and are) the rule-followers).  Those of us that rely on Grace typically abuse that Grace in how we live our lives - I will freely admit that, being in this category.  But, those of us who are the rule-followers...there is an insidious trap that they fall into.  I am generalizing here, but I have noticed that these folks tend to try to adopt God’s Grace by way of the Gospel, but then also try to mix in God’s law.  It is what we see with the Jerusalem Counsel in Acts.  In reality though, you can’t have it both ways.  God doesn’t grade on a curve, nor does He grade us at all - that was the Law.  And, if you live with that kind of fairness mentality, this verse is for you - because God has never given us a scale on which to judge ourselves, or to know how we stand with Him.  This verse reminds us that God is just, and it is against His nature to judge us if we aren’t given a scale.

Today, even though I am more of the rebellious type by nature, I (as all of us do) have some of the fairness thing in me too...and I am praying that God would help me spot it, root it out, and let go of that.  In my case, the biggest impact that has is on my prayer life - when I am most behaving, I feel closest to God; and the opposite is also true.  But, that’s a me thing, not a God thing.  God hasn’t moved...and my faith should be more stable than that as well!