The starting pitcher for the winning team in game 1 of the baseball World Series was accused after the contest of doctoring the ball using Vaseline. Through the years folks have always given pitchers who have been suspected or caught doctoring the baseball cute nicknames and treated their antics playfully. Yet the same people who have winked and nudged at their friends about the baseball spitballers, utter much more definitive statements about blackballing any pitcher proven to have used steriods. However, one thing is perfectly clear, both the player applying a foreign substance to the surface of the ball and the player injecting themselves with drugs, were cheating. Both were seeking to gain a competitive advantage. Is one better than the other under the law? Well, in fact, yes. If caught, the baseball doctor would only get disqualified for the remainder of the game. The steroid user, if caught, would be banned for at least 50 games. So under the written law, there is a difference. However, under moral law as defined by sin, there is only one color of sin. There is no black, white, and gray. All sin is an abomination to God. The baseball doctor and the steroid user are equally guilty.
It's funny how we like to compare our sin with that of others. We make ourselves feel better by thinking that we are not as bad as some others that we know.
- I only cheat on my wife when I am drunk. Bob does it all the time and with anyone that even looks at him.
- Sure I may take assorted office supplies from work every now and then. But Marcia worked herself a kickback in the recent contract.
- I got into a scrum with that jerk who bumped into me at the bar the other week, but Carl got into a knife fight.
- I only cuss when I am upset or frustrated. Susan has a mouth like a sailor.
We have developed great skill at rationalizing all of the sinful behaviors in our lives. We seem to be able to look into the mirror and not see ourselves as we truly are. Our sins are either no big deal or are the fault of someone else. Yet the math is clear, sin = sin. There is no escaping that.
