Double Standards

Many people set ridiculously high standards for their fellow man (or woman, or child). They expect others to be exactly what they want them to be; and when (inevitably) others do not live up to that standard, they are rebuked, rebuffed, or in some cases, removed. Whether or not these same people set for themselves the same standards, or whether they live up to their own expectations of themselves is, for the sake of this discussion, irrelevant.

Here's what is relevant. And that's God's standard. Whoa, whoa, God's standard? Isn't that PERFECTION? Yes, it is. And there can be no exceptions to the rule. It's either perfection or destruction. Well, where's the hope in that?

Here's the thing. God expects absolute perfection, yet He expects it from imperfect creatures. How do you reconcile the two? That reconciliation only comes in the person of the God-Man, Jesus Christ. Jesus bridged the gap between God's perfection and our imperfection through the blood He shed on the cross. Without that, we have no hope. We have no means, in and of ourselves, of achieving God's standard of perfection. But, with Jesus interceding for us, the gap between us and God not only narrows, it closes.

Given the choice between the two – utter hopelessness and everlasting hope – I'll stick with the latter. What about you?