I
remember being told: excuses are like toenails- “they aren’t
pretty, but we all have them”. Interesting saying, but a rather
poor way of living one’s life. What is an excuse anyway?
My Wordnet
dictionary defines it as:
The noun excuse has 3 senses
(first 1 from tagged texts)
1. (10) excuse, alibi,
exculpation, self-justification -- (a defense of some offensive
behavior or some failure to keep a promise etc.; "he kept
finding excuses to stay"; "every day he had a new alibi for
not getting a job"; "his transparent self-justification was
unacceptable")
2. excuse -- (a note
explaining an absence; "he had to get his mother to write an
excuse for him")
3. apology, excuse -- (a poor
example; "it was an apology for a meal"; "a poor
excuse for an automobile")
The verb excuse has 6 senses
(first 4 from tagged texts)
1. (2) excuse, pardon --
(accept an excuse for; "Please excuse my dirty hands")
2. (2) excuse, relieve, let
off, exempt -- (grant exemption or release to; "Please excuse me
from this class")
3. (2) excuse, explain --
(serve as a reason or cause or justification of; "Your need to
sleep late does not excuse your late arrival at work"; "Her
recent divorce may explain her reluctance to date again")
4. (1) apologize, apologise,
excuse, justify, rationalize, rationalise -- (defend, explain, clear
away, or make excuses for by reasoning; "rationalize the child's
seemingly crazy behavior"; "he rationalized his lack of
success")
5. excuse, beg off -- (ask for
permission to be released from an engagement)
6. excuse, condone -- (excuse,
overlook, or make allowances for; be lenient with; "excuse
someone's behavior"; "She condoned her husband's occasional
infidelities")
To
me, giving an excuse means giving a reason for not doing something
you know that you should be doing. The excuse in the picture refers
to the Gospel of John, so lets take a moment and read it...
John 3 (LitV) 1
Joh 3:1, But
there was a man from the Pharisees, Nicodemus his name, a ruler of
the Jews.
Joh 3:2, This
one came to Jesus by night and said to Him, Rabbi, we know that You
have come as a teacher from God. For no one is able to do these
miraculous signs which You do, except God be with Him.
Joh 3:3, Jesus
answered and said to him, Truly, truly, I say to you, If one is not
generated from above 2
(ανωθεν
in
Greek, emphasis added),
he is not able to see the kingdom of God.
Joh 3:4,
Nicodemus said to Him, How is a man able to be generated, being old?
He is not able to enter into his mother's womb a second time and be
born?
Joh 3:5, Jesus
answered, Truly, truly, I say to you, If one is not generated out of
water and Spirit, he is not able to enter into the kingdom of God.
Joh 3:6, That
having been generated out of the flesh is flesh, and that having been
generated out of the Spirit is spirit.
When
someone says “I was born this way” I don’t believe them for a
second. Why? Because not one person I have ever known can remember
something before the age of three, let alone from their birth. What
they are really saying is: I only remember being this way. Therefore,
they really don’t what they were like in the first few years of
their life and don’t realize what they are actually saying.
Human
beings need a Spiritual birth to be right with God, not excuses.
Jesus said so (in
verses 3 and 5 above) and that settles it. We
may have excuses (“logical reasons”) for why we do the things we
do, but it is God and God alone who ultimately will be our judge.
Other than the “excuse” which God supplies (that is Jesus’
sacrifice for our sins) I know of no reason why God should forgive
our sins. Having an “excuse” is just a waste of time and an
effort to try to hide from the reality of our sin; don’t do it.
Turn to Jesus and LIVE.
1 The
Literal translation by J.P. Green
2 Many
translations use the word “again”. I prefer from above
because this is the actual meaning of the word ανωθεν. All human beings have a physical birth, but a Spiritual birth would be an additional or second birth, so "again" is fine.