How Should We Respond to Sin?

You seek for faults to censure and suppress
And have no time for inward happiness –
How can you know God’s secret majesty
If you look out for sin incessantly?
To share His hidden glory you must learn
That others’ errors are not your concern;
When someone else’s failing are defined,
What hairs you split — but to your own you’re blind!
Grace comes to those, no matter how they’ve strayed,
Who know their own sin’s strength, and are afraid.

Farid Attar, The Conference of the Birds

Rereading this passage today really cemented in me the idea that there is no “holy” way to throw the first stone. No matter the circumstance, when we are engaged in calling attention to the sins of others and admonishing them, we are acting out of the very part of our own selves that is the locus of sinfulness.

Sin, impermanence, finitude… whatever religious language you want to use, this is not a paradigm we can overcome through an effort of the will. Thinking you have rid yourself of sin, or even that you have generally gone from a more sinful state to a less sinful state — this can only ever be arrogance and the misapprehension of a deeper reality. If all the comforts of your life were to tomorrow disappear (and these are things which are certainly not uniquely maintained by one’s own will — you maintain them and participate in them, but ultimately they are fully interconnected with the lives of other people and the natural world, things which themselves are fully dependent on God) could you still feel the same way about your perceived lack of sinfulness?

So it is not our own will, or our own effort which allows us to steer clear of sin in many circumstances; rather, this is something which is entirely and exclusively a gift from God, a manifestation of his Mercy.

In this context, how can it any longer appear reasonable to admonish the sins of others? God has allowed you to escape a certain amount of sin (though consider, your knowledge of these matters are terrible limited and you are, at any given moment, participating in myriad sins which fail to even register in your consciousness), so be thankful and give glory. As for the sins of others — God leads astray whomsoever He wills. Why not attempt, to the best of your ability, to respond to the sinful person in such a way that you act as a conduit of God’s mercy? We know God is the judge of all things and will sort everything out in perfect measure in due time — how arrogant must you be to believe that God needs your help in these matters? If you are acting out such a belief, you have certainly taken your own intellect as an idol — so hasten yourself to repentance, and be grateful to God that he will show you more mercy than you have shown others.