doing God a favor

Today we read from 2 Samuel 1:1-2:11 in the One Year Bible. "A man" comes before David and tells him that he did David a favor and killed Saul. The worst part of this might be that he didn't even do it. He's lying. Saul killed himself. But the man thought he would get a reward from David for killing his enemy. And he did - the reward was his own death.

The man learned the hard way that it's dangerous to do someone a favor without knowing if they want it done or not. And we should keep that in mind, regarding people. But it's also true with God. Now, we CAN do God a favor by loving His children. Feeding the hungry, visiting those in prison, taking care of orphans and widows... He will always appreciate when we do that.

But when we take it upon ourselves to judge sinners and do Him a favor by killing those who we think offend Him... well, we might find ourselves in the same predicament as "a man" in today's reading.

You might think to yourself, "Well, of COURSE I would never kill anyone." But now ask yourself: when was the last time you killed someone's life or reputation by passing along some scandalous bit of information about them? Posted something evil about them on social media. Well, you might object, what I shared was TRUE!

That doesn't make it right. Not all truth is worth sharing. Does that surprise you? Scandal is a sin - and it means sharing information about someone that hurts them, even if that information is true. Does that mean you should just ignore it when someone does something wrong? Well, usually I would say yes. Give them a pass. Give them the same benefit of the doubt that you give yourself. Love covers over a multitude of sins. But if what they've done needs to be addressed... if it's really serious... then don't go gossiping about them, either in person with your neighbors or on social media. Instead, CONFRONT the person who has sinned. You might help them to get their life back in line. And you'll avoid a whole lot of grief from character assassination.

God, thanks for teaching us not to do You any favors.