Dear BPCWA worshipper, As we have heard in various messages, are you truly watchful of Christ’s return? God desires our all while we wait. Total consecration is the only life for a Christian while he is on earth. Anything short of our all is sinful unfaithfulness. We learnt that at the end times, the love of many believers will wax cold. Not that there is no love, but that it will be cold love. Loving God “with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength: this is the first commandment” (Mark 12:30) is not an optional life for the Christian individual. The very definition of sin is that “sin is the transgression of the law” (1 John 3:4), so anything short of our all that we want to keep is sin. It breaks the greatest commandment. But because we don’t want to give Christ our all and make Him our all, we often resort to something that often leaves our lips without much thought – excuses. Everyone is guilty of this at different points in our lives. How often is that so in your life? Has it become a habit that you don’t even consider sin? Simply because making excuses is so prevalent doesn’t mean that as a Christian, we should not do anything about it. Remember, cold love uses excuses to ease our consciences. 

God sees through our excuses. “And they all with one consent began to make excuse. The first said unto him, I have bought a piece of ground, and I must needs go and see it: I pray thee have me excused. 19 And another said, I have bought five yoke of oxen, and I go to prove them: I pray thee have me excused. 20 And another said, I have married a wife, and therefore I cannot come” (Luke 14:18-20). In this story told by God, are not these reasons mentioned by different individuals very valid for not attending the invitation by the lord? In themselves, the reasons for their actions are not sinful. But, the Omniscient God exposed the “reasons” as excuses. By His divinely inspired word, He tells us blatantly that all these really have no excuse!

What are excuses? The individuals, so as to avert displeasure and to maintain a semblance of morality, gave reasons why they could not attend the event. They hoped that by what they cited, the lord would understand, not be upset, and accept their explanations, and excuse them. However, God reveals that the explanations given to request to be excused are fake. They were not interested to attend the event, ie they could if they really wanted to go. The fact that they had to use an excuse tells us that they knew in their heart that they were not doing the right thing and would displease the lord.  They hoped that with some valid reasons given, they could get away with their behaviour. The Cambridge dictionary is brutally honest in defining an excuse as “a reason that you give to explain why you did something wrong” or “the explanation given for bad behaviour, absence, etc”. Each one of us needs to be very conscious if we are indeed giving excuses.

We are good at finding “legitimate” excuses. The frightful realisation that must cause us to carefully search our own hearts from this lesson from Jesus Christ is – we are quite capable of latching on to even real life’s events as excuses to get ourselves off the hook from doing something we do not wish to do. And because of that, not your parent, not another Christian, and not the church, can immediately point out that you are just using them as excuses. In fact, they sound so serious that no one may even think to question what you say.  For example, you may be too lazy to do your quiet time, attend prayer meetings, are uninterested in attending Bible studies or to evangelise because you want to do something you prefer instead. You can cite a slight health discomfort or busy schedule, or COVID-19 situation, or last-minute matter you need to attend to, and a myriad of reasons which your mind can quickly come up with. “Legitimate excuses” make you feel that your reasons justify your actions (or rather, lack of godly action), and hence expect others to believe so too. And the individuals in the story Jesus told may even indeed have gone about doing what they said they “needed to do”. However, the point is that in their hearts, they did not want to attend the supper. Likewise, some of us may indeed do what we said we “needed to do”. But, we did so because we did not want to do what we ought to be doing.

Am I making excuses? Now, the reasons you cite may not be entirely untrue and you can ease your conscience that you are not “lying”. But the real underlying true reason for citing them is so that you do not need to go to church to study the Word, serve God, worship Him, fellowship with others, or show brotherly kindness to someone who genuinely needs it. In other words, though what you said you “need to do” instead is not sinful, you knew you could actually make it to church, help the brethren, reach out to souls, and obey God in something – if you really made the effort. So, how do you know when you are making excuses? 1) When you already know what is the right biblical choice you should make, you can fulfill that choice, but you would rather not, and hence you are finding reasons why you “cannot”. In reality, if you made a genuine effort, you can obey God, come to church, or serve Him. You know that if something were important to you, you can make the needed changes without making excuses. 2) You may even cite spiritual activities, for example, say that you are staying at home to read the Bible, do your FEBC course, or pray at home. But you know these things can be done outside the appointed time to be found in receiving the Word and praying in house of prayer or be in the fellowship with the saints. 3) Or you can say you cannot obey God in something but you know if you made certain sacrifices or changes in your life, you can indeed obey Him. 4) Or you may say that you “would” make it if it was another day because you already had other plans for that day. However, you know that deep inside, even if you were free, you would not be there. So, however spiritual sounding, they are just excuses.

Excuses and taking God’s Name in vain. Of all excuses, the worst excuse is to use “Christian sounding” reasons to legitimise your reluctance. God is Omniscient, and He knows the real underlying reason. I am not discounting the fact that there are some genuinely unanticipated reasons that may prevent you from doing what you rightly wish to. But often, it is not the genuine last-minute unexpected things, but the things that we can plan for, or make changes to, but do not wish to. With excuses, you think that you can get off the hook – but only with men. Ask the children, and they will be more than happy to give you a whole textbook of excuses by both children and adults that people can see right through (except yourself). Even the sinful nature in children know how to give excuses without being taught (though obviously they improve these “skills” and grow to become more “skilled” in giving excuses from their parents’ examples).   When you use God as an excuse, you compound sin above sin. The 3rd commandment “Thou shalt not take the name of the LORD thy God in vain; for the LORD will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain” (Ex 20:7) is about the representation of His character and all that He stands for, not just a careless use of His Name.

Stop excusing ourselves. You may be thinking “but what I said is true”! Just remember, the All Knowing God knows your heart’s intentions although your statemen is factually “true”. Sure, the event occurred, but is that the real reason at the root of the matter? We need to know why we give excuses, and the first step is being honest with ourselves. We often know they are excuses when if you drill deeply with the questions, the underlying reason becomes exposed. They may be one of these – “I am too lazy”, “it inconveniences what I’m used to or prefer”, “I am afraid”, “it takes too much time/money/effort”, etc. For example, a full-day school until 3 pm may mean that children are hungry at lunchtime, and will be tired without nap times. But parents who feel that school is important will gladly think of alternatives and pack lunch for them to eat at school. As mentioned above, you know you’re giving an excuse when you’re willing to find a way to do it under other circumstances and for something you like, but not for this. Or a mother may say that she has to work because the cost of living is so high. But has spending been cut back? Are there provisions whereby the children can be supported but it is a difficult or humbling path? Or a student may say, “I am too busy”, but wastes other days of the week. It is an excuse when you know there are other ways out of it, but you just don’t want to live according to the Bible because it is a more difficult life. If so, then it’s a matter of priorities and we need to be honest to ourselves and face up to the real sin.

“The spirit of man is the candle of the LORD, searching all the inward parts of the belly” (Prov 20:27). For someone who knows how you live your life, would they see through that as an excuse? Without facing up to it, we will happily live alongside the sin, thinking that we have a “justified” reason to continue with our life as it is. Man may not know, or at best only suspect, but God knows the real reason and that’s what matters most. If you do not face up to the fact that you’re being disobedient and living in sin, you will never see a need to change and repent because in your mind you’ve convinced yourself that you’re justified and it’s fine. That’s what makes excuses dangerous to our Christian life in the long term.

Remember, we are very good at excusing ourselves that we have come to even believe in our own “legitimate excuses”. Hence, we must truly search our hearts when we give reasons why we cannot be doing what we know we should be doing.

Ps 139:23-24  Search me, O God, and know my heart: try me, and know my thoughts:
24 And see if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.

Yours in our Lord’s service,
Pastor