We Usually Expect Far Too Much Of Others

Common Sense Commentary:

It didn't take but six chapters, after God created man in His own image, for man to completely corrupt himself and everything he touched. "And God looked upon the earth, and, behold, it was corrupt; for all flesh had corrupted his way upon the earth." Gen.6:12. So God sent a flood, erased the board, and started over.  That second start didn't last long either. Five chapters after the flood, the whole of mankind, in disobedience to God's command to go their separate ways and replenish the earth, (they) founded the United Nations and built The Tower Of Babel in a religious effort to get to heaven.  Again God came down to judge them, destroyed Babel, confused their common language and scattered them abroad in Gen.11.
 
Even the great King David confessed... "My flesh and my heart faileth: but God is the strength of my heart, and my portion for ever." Psm.73:26.  David is saying, "My flesh and my heart are hopelessly flawed but God gives me hope for eternity."Then David began to list all the things God had done for His people and blessed them in a thousand ways, and yet they sinned the more in their faulty flesh.  From time to time God would send a plague or a host of enemy to punish his people, and they would turn to Him again, in prayer, and He would forgive them and continue to bless them.  "And they sinned yet more against him...." Psm.78:17. Again and again they would backslide and turn away from God and complain against Him. God would give them miraculous blessings such as water in the desert and manna from heaven, but again they would return to their fleshly sins and heart rebellion. In all of this, the scripture says that God forgave them ... "For he remembered that they were but flesh ...." Psm.78:39. That was not only Israel, it is us as well.  We are but flesh!  We are not gods; we are not even "good". "And Jesus said unto him .... there is none good but one, that is, God."Mk.10:18.

If people won't do what is right by God, how can we expect them to always do the right thing by us?  The fact is, we usually expect too much out of a bunch of sinners like ourselves. I am always amazed at people who embrace a religion which claims that we fleshly, faulty, fickle people can somehow be good enough to be saved or holy enough, within their own flesh, to stay saved. If Christians can't be perfect, how do you expect a lost person not to act like a lost person?  That is why we should never risk our eternal destiny in the "opinion" of some suave, well spoken religious leader who passes himself off as a super holy saint, when God knows "they are but flesh".

Parents should expect certain things of their children and children of their parents, but many parents expect too much of their children and spoiled children always expect too much of their parents and everyone else ... for the rest of their lives.  When people get old and feeble, and don't feel well, they most often expect too much of their caregivers, or the caregivers of them.  Hey, give other people some slack.  Let up on your demands of everyone else.  Look at yourself, correct yourself, criticize your own faults, but give yourself some slack too.  I'm not talking about ignoring serious transgressions or letting your children go wild and destroy themselves or someone else.  I'm saying our human flesh is, from birth to death imperfect, and cannot be made perfect.  The best Christian who ever lived had faults and failures of integrity from time to time. Don't make everyone around you or a single person's life miserable because of your super high standards which you yourself do not measure up to either. And if you are honest, you know it is true. Stop pretending you are perfect. It doesn't work. God and most people know you are a fake if you do that.  We are all flesh and blood people.  Let us do our very best and stay as close to God as we possibly can and try to always be honest and descent and real.... but don't push the margin of reality in your desire to be special and holy and perfect In the eyes of others. That leads to self-righteous.  That is a foul smell in the nostrils of God. Not one human will get to heaven on their own merit. The Apostle Paul warned about this in Romans 7:14-25. Read it. RB

"For we know that the law is spiritual: but I am carnal, sold under sin. For that which I do I allow not: for what I would, that do I not; but what I hate, that do I. If then I do that which I would not, I consent unto the law that it is good. Now then it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me. For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh,) dwelleth no good thing: for to will is present with me; but how to perform that which is good I find not. For the good that I would I do not: but the evil which I would not, that I do. Now if I do that I would not, it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me. I find then a law, that, when I would do good, evil is present with me. For I delight in the law of God after the inward man: But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members. O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death? I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. So then with the mind I myself serve the law of God; but with the flesh the law of sin." Rom.7:14-25.

If you don't believe the Apostle Paul was inspired of God, why, in heaven's name, should anyone believe you when you spout off your own opinion on eternal things? At least Paul was there, associating with the other Apostles and disciples who personally heard Jesus teach, saw Him heal, perform miracles and arise from the dead. RB