FEATURE ARTICLE

Rev. Dr. Adenike YesufuTuesday, July 12, 2016
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THE CHALLENGES OF BEING BLAMELESS BEFORE MEN

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euteronomy 18:13 says you shall be blameless before your God. Ephesians1:4 indicates that we should be holy and without blame before Him. 2 Peter 3:14 asks us to be diligent to be found without spot and blameless. Paul to Timothy demands that Bishops and Deacons must be blameless. My thoughts then strayed to what it means to be blameless. John Calvin says blameless means to be free from any notorious fault. The dictionary describes it as without guilt, censure or reproach meaning to be perfect. No one is perfect except God. Corinthians 1:8 tells us that it is Christ who will confirm us and make us blameless in the end. This means we cannot declare ourselves blameless, we will be judged blameless by another. Blameless before God requires that like David in Psalm 51, we confess our sins to God and ask to be thoroughly washed and cleansed. In Isaiah God says that if our sins are like scarlet and red as crimson they shall be made as white as snow. The Book of Revelation indicates that those in heaven will be judged blameless before God. Does it mean that they have never sinned? Of course not! It means that God forgave them and granted them righteousness.

In 2 Corinthians 8:21 Paul says that we must provide honorable things in the sight of the Lord and in the sight of men. This means that there should be no question about our integrity or upright character and that we must be mindful of our behavior before God and before each other. To me blameless before God seems less of a challenge than blameless before men. We live in a world where we are not always forgiving of each other, where seals of approval are not readily given to deserving people, where people are not always kind and gracious to each other, where we are very critical of each other, judge each other harshly, condemn each other, discriminate against one another, oppress each other, bear false witness against one other, deny each other's rights, covet one another, put each other's relationships asunder, kill each other, where self promotion is virtuous, where the golden rule for some is do unto others what you can't stand them doing unto you. Who can survive all these without God's grace?

In Acts 24:16 Paul says he tries his best to be blameless before God and before men. Did he succeed? I would say, before God, Yes, but before men, we only need to look at the various persecutions that he suffered. God described Job in 2:3 as upright, one who feared Him, shunned evil, and above all blameless. Job did some introspection and in 9:21 adjudged himself blameless. But Job was not spared by his friends. They did not declare him blameless. They accused him of some secret sins that turned God against him. Blameless before men is tricky.

However, blameless before others is not just about their perception of us, it is equally about our actions. It requires an input from us, part of which is pursuing peace. Are we blameless in the way we deal with people? Do we relate to people with integrity of hearts? When people hurt us, do we reach out to them or do we look for the opportunity to payback, because revenge is sweet? Do we make efforts to mend broken relationships? Or is it good riddance to bad rubbish? How often do we violate our values and take advantage of others and situations? Many a times people are presented with options that they know are not right, not appropriate, not ethical and at times downright evil, but alluring all the same, seductively tempting, irresistible; with the feeling of I can get away with these and no one will ever know, these offers are too good to pass, they may not come again, I will go for them. We may not always succeed at being judged blameless by others, our peers, friends, family members, workplace colleagues, church members, neighbors etc. But we may want to be deemed to have tried because there is profound peace for the one who strives to be blameless before God and before man.

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