Persistence

To those who by persistence in doing good seek glory, honor and immortality, he will give eternal life. But for those who are self-seeking and who reject the truth and follow evil, there will be wrath and anger. There will be trouble and distress for every human being who does evil; first for the Jew, then for the Gentile; but glory, honor and peace for everyone who does good; first for the Jew, then for the Gentile. For God does not show favoritism (Romans 2:7-11)

          Wait. Stop. God doesn’t show favoritism? Doesn’t this passage show that He does show favoritism? If you’re a goody-two-shoes, you get glory, honor, immortality and peace. If you’re not, you get wrath, anger, trouble and distress. And we all know that both the Jews and the Christians (and religious people in general) are the worst sort, don’t we?

          In Mere Christianity, Professor Lewis says that one of the things the existence of the moral law reveals to us is that the power behind it and the universe “is intensely interested in right conduct – in fair play, unselfishness, courage, good faith, honesty and truthfulness.” After all, most religious texts deal with the subject of doing good to get to heaven. He continues, “But do not let us go too fast here. The Moral Law does not give us any grounds for thinking that God is ‘good’ in the sense of being indulgent, or soft, or sympathetic.” 

          Paul seems to agree. He contrasts those who persist in doing good with those who do evil. How many goody-two-shoes do you know who persist in doing good all the time and never do evil? I may be cynical, but I strongly doubt that anyone other than Jesus Christ has gone through life persisting to do good and never doing evil. It doesn’t matter whether that person sees himself as one of God’s chosen people (the Jews) or as someone else (the Greeks.) If a person could get through life persisting to do what is good and never doing what is evil, then that person would deserve glory, honor, immortality and peace. It doesn’t matter whether that person is a Jew or a Greek

          “But…nobody’s perfect.” You’re right. That is the point. We are all fallen. Shouldn’t God grade on a curve? Make allowances? If He did, he would no longer be moral…no longer good. He would be showing favoritism. If you only commit treason once, haven’t you still committed treason. The woman who is faithful to her husband ninety-nine percent of the time effectively spends 3.65 days of the year having at least one affair, or cheats with every hundredth man she encounters. Somehow, I suspect most women who are unfaithful are unfaithful more than one percent of the time. The woman who cheats once has still cheated. 

         I agree that all of that sounds very harsh. The picture is very bleak and grim. But wait, there’s more…