Nobody likes double-standards. Believers are no exception.
We, as individuals, are pretty good at finding out the double-standards in others, but often fail to notice it in ourselves.
From God's view, it is hypocrisy.
Sometimes we intentionally follow double-standards to uphold our ego and pride or to sound right or to not lose an argument or debate.
At other times, we fall for it even without our knowledge.
To be frank, I have been a hypocrite myself in many ways, and I wonder if I could be one even now in certain ways without my knowledge.
Here are some ways, we believers of Christ follow double-standards:
Forgiving others
Following Christ
Condemning others
Demanding perfection
Let's see them one-by-one below.
Forgiving others
Almost all believers can recognize this quite easily.
This can be split into two parts:
We forgiving others (covered in this section)
God forgiving others (covered in the section - Condemning others)
We are believing in Christ, because we are sinners and we need Him to forgive and redeem us of our sins.
However, we find it very difficult to forgive others that we even forget the fact that we are forgiven by Christ for bigger wrongs (in some we could have been repeated offenders too) at greater measures.
Matthew 18:21-35 talks exactly about this double-standards in us.
Following Christ
Wondering how is it possible to have double-standards even in following Christ?
Most believers (including me), in the beginning stages of our salvation, expect God to change others in order to make things smooth for us from a worldly view, while we choose to remain the same person.
However, God's intention is to molds us first, unlike what we usually expect (to mold the others hurting or annoying us).
Many believers fail to recognize that God's work in us is more inward and less outward, and cling to their early stage of salvation for a long time (and forget about growing in Christ), while waiting for God to turn things around (or create breakthroughs) in their worldly life!
However, in 1 Corinthians 3:2, we read that Paul compared such people to babies (who only drink milk) in the spiritual view, and refuse to eat solid food (and grow in Christ)!
In fact, God intends to use us as the catalyst to bring about a change in others. We must bear the fruits of the Holy Spirit first (Galatians 5:22-23), and that will make us shine the light of Christ to others.
When people notice a change in us due to the fruits we bear for Christ, we're shining the light of Christ to them.
Condemning others
When we are imperfect before Christ due to our own sins and yet forgiven by God, we fail to realize that God is longing to forgive the ones we hate as well.
Our flesh usually makes us crave for God's judgement upon the ones we hate, while forgetting the fact that we also have hurt (and still hurting by losing some of our battles against the flesh) God by our own sins.
We are not yet holy in God's standards, despite our salvation. We have a battle with our flesh everyday, until we die or Christ comes back.
When we think about God's judgement, we at times subconsciously conclude the people whom we hate are condemned, while we are forgiven and saved by God's mercy or even through our self-righteousness!
The lessons we learn from Luke 18:9-14, are not to condemn others, and self-righteousness (in our own standards) doesn't make us worthy before God. It's ONLY by Christ's sacrifice on the cross that we are justified.
Demanding perfection
This usually happens among believers. We naturally expect fellow believers to be perfect followers of Christ, while we fail to recognize that we aren't perfect yet.
If another believer makes a mistake, we notice and point it out, while we fail to notice such mistakes in ourselves.
One can find many such examples based on their own life experiences.
Matthew 7:3-5 partially points out this kind of double-standard in us.
These are just 4 ways of double-standards I could recall immediately while writing this post.
There could be many, which we can know only when we truly meditate upon God's Word, and seek the help of Christ to correct us!
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