Incriminate – Make someone appear guilty of a crime or wrongdoing (Oxford)
There are two sides to the sword of incrimination. It can be used to cut, or to be cut.
What we deem grounds for incrimination, or making someone feel guilty, can be reason, or justification. Somewhere in the mix are mercy, tolerance and forgiveness. When incrimination, although justly employed, meets with mercy and love, it neutralizes the severity.
We are to, “in honour prefer one another”. However, in the heart of man is a need to self-protect. We were created by God to be relatively defenceless of ourselves. We don’t run the speed of a cheetah, that can accelerate from 0 to 60 miles an hour in three seconds. Neither do we have the wings of eagles with the ability to soar to lofty mountain peaks when we feel threatened.
We as humans cannot defend ourselves physically, the way the animal kingdom does. So, our options are mind tools and items of defense that our intellectual ability can create. In the development of these tools, we easily misuse them, and as a result they become harmful instead of helpful. Since the days of creation half-truths have been one of these pathetic tools. It may have started when the devil in the garden of Eden asked the question, “Hath God said?” It has been glibly stated in marital conflict there is his story, her story, and the truth.
One of the foundations supporting our government’s purpose for a judicial system is that the penalty for a crime is dealt with in a just manner. For this reason, there is a jury and a judge, lawyers and witnesses. The desired outcome of the law’s intent is truth and justice.
In the Christian’s practice there is a similar scene, with major differences. We have one true, all-seeing God that not only witnesses the crime, but understands the intents of the heart. Hebrews 4:12 “For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.”
As a believer in Christ this extends comfort and solace. Quietness and rest. Now I don’t need to worry about incrimination. I don’t need to come before the courts of the land. I can reach out to the hand of Jesus my Saviour. He died on the cross of Calvary to vindicate me. I no longer need to explain or justify. I come to Jesus who already knows the truth. Yet, my nature wants to explain, to avoid incrimination.
