"For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,"

"What are some of the implications of (Romans) 3:23 that we are all sinners?"

There is exactly one Person who has ever lived a perfect life, and we killed Him. We seem to have a habit of doing things like this. What does that say about us as a people? We get jealous of people who we think carry on better lives than we do, and so we do as much damage to them as we can. We may not physically put them on the Cross like Jesus, but we commit character assassination and libel and slander. We call such people "do-gooders" and "holier-than-thous" and publicly castigate them.

Meanwhile, someone like Mother Teresa, who has been put up for sainthood by many in the Catholic faith, has been discovered to have had doubts about her faith. As though she hadn't done enough in Calcutta. As though her work for the poor was just business as usual. As though her example wasn't good enough somehow.

We are too quick to believe the very first bad report, the first bad news about someone. Who doesn't know the story of Richard Jewell by now? The man finds a bomb at the Atlanta Olympics just by doing his job, and the next thing we know, he's accused of planting it himself.

We've heard of the downfall of many a televangelist such as Jimmy Swaggart and Jim and Tammy Bakker and cheered their fall. We jeered at the Catholic church for the habits of some of the priests in her service. We take pleasure in pointing out the infidelities of our political leaders, such as Bill Clinton and John Kennedy. We love to point out the drinking and frat-boy habits of George W. Bush. Not to put them on the same level as biblical figures, but this is nothing new--Scripture says that the Jews of old did the same thing to the many judges and prophets who were called by God to lead them.

If everyone has sinned and fallen short of the kingdom of God, we need to be a little more forgiving of those around us. Don't be so quick to believe a bad report about someone. Don't believe every rumor you hear. There's more than enough bad news to go around without trying to dig some up.

We also need to be less harsh on ourselves. If Mother Teresa thought she wasn't doing enough, that her faith was lacking, then I'd say that anyone is susceptible to worrying about that very thing. It is destructive, it weakens us, and it keeps us from seeing God's glory because it can put a wedge between us and God. We start to think that even God Himself can't move us to where we need to be. We should know by now that this is far from the truth, that God can take us right where we are.

He can, you know...