The Blame Game…

The Blame Game…

…started way back in the garden of Eden, and we have been playing it ever since.  Both the first man and woman were independently guilty of disobeying God.  Following their transgression, in Genesis 3:8, when they heard God walking in the garden, both the man and woman hid themselves: neither one of them could stand boldly out in the open, without guilt, ready to confidently proclaim that the other was the sole bearer of guilt.  And when the Lord asked them about eating the forbidden fruit, consider their responses:

“The woman, whom you gave to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I ate.”  Said the man.  God asked him a simple question, why not the simple admission of guilt, “I ate from the tree from which you said not to eat”?  Why mention the woman at all in the response about what HE had done?  And what about the woman?  The LORD asked her what she had done.  Her response: “The serpent deceived me, and I ate.”  Again, why mention the serpent?  The Lord asked what SHE had done.  Why not the simple admission of guilt, “I ate from the tree which you forbade and gave it to my husband.” 

Neither the man or the woman was willing to confess their own guilt and the role they played in transgressing the law of God, but both were punished for their own sin.  Several thousand years have passed, and the blame game is still being played out in the affairs of mankind.  Generally, people do not want to take responsibility for their own mistakes, and when one person starts pointing the fingerwhen mistakes are made, it often triggers a chain reaction of finger pointing.

In I Samuel 15, King Saul disobeys God’s command to utterly destroy the Amalekites, and the prophet Samuel confronts him about his disobedience.  What was Saul’s response?  It was the people who had spared some of the Amalekites and the people who had spared some of the livestock.  Saul opted to play the blame game instead of confessing the error of his own actions.

Now, sometimes, it is the other persons fault.  Sometimes.  But many people have an attitude of thinking that it is always someone else’s fault.  Regardless of the circumstances, many people are not willing to accept any, even partial responsibility for problems and mistakes.  This is the attitude the child of God must diligently avoid.  The danger in this attitude is that, while in the habit of blaming others for worldly mistakes and mishaps, we start to blame others or outside circumstances for our sins.  Erring children of God have often been heard saying things like, “I would not have gotten drunk if he hadn’t let me go to the party”, or “I would not have gotten so angry if she would not have been there to provoke me”, or “I would have gone to the church assembly but she kept me up all night”, or just the plain, pathetic, “the Devil made me do it.” (James 1:14)

The word of God is clear: when it comes to sin, every individual will be held accountable for ANY transgression, even if someone else played albeit a minor role in mistakes made.  Romans 2:1,2 say that we have “no excuse” when we try to judge and blame others, and that “the judgment of God is according to truth.”  A person may build an attitude in their mind that they can do no wrong, and every problem is everyone else’s fault, but the bottom line is that God knows who has done justly and who has done injustice (i.e., He knows who has done injustice but is trying to cover that injustice by blaming the faults of others!)

Matthew chapter 7 begins with a lesson on hypocritical fault finding.  Verse 3 asks, “Why do you consider the speck in your brother’s eye,but cannot see the plank that is in your own eye?”  When problems arise and wrongs have been committed, the honest child of God steps back, takes a good long look at self, and asks, “what wrongs have I committed in this situation?  What sinful action, word, or attitude on my part has led to this problem?”  And, once they have assessed their own error, have dealt with the plank in their own eye, then can begin trying to assess the speck in their brother’s eye.

The problem with the blame game is that there are no winners.  When husbands and wives begin playing the blame game, it turns into an ugly battle of pride and selfishness.  Brothers and sisters in the church who start blaming each other for problematic situations can ultimately decide to go their separate ways instead of reaching a mutual understanding of what the word of God teaches.  And, sadly, love for the Lord, for our families, and for our brothers and sisters in Christ is usually pulled off the field and benched when the blame game begins.

As children of God, let us humble ourselves in the sight of the Lord and be submissive to one another (I Peter 5:5,6).  Let’s do our best to esteem others before ourselves (Phil. 2:3), and not be so quick to throw someone else “under the bus” for even the smallest of our own transgressions and mistakes.

Jeremy Koontz

“Let nothing be done through selfish ambition or conceit, but in lowliness of mind let each esteem others better than himself.  Let each of you look out not only for his own interests, but also for the interests of others.  Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus.” – Philippians 2:3-5