The Banner of Accusation

There is also the banner of accusation whose motives can color the way we interact with people when something has gone wrong.

It can be very subtle, communicating with a look, a sigh or a word that something is wrong somewhere and someone needs to be blamed, someone besides the one doing the blaming. It is the transferring over onto another the burden of responsibility for some perceived evil whether specific or vague. This can happen without any words being exchanged. It is just felt.

Or it can be out in the open with an actual accusation. With this underlying motive, after a person has been accused of some perceived short falling or crime, what is felt by the accused is that they have been tried, sentenced and hung in a kangaroo court with little option of ever crawling out from under the verdict of rejection. The accused becomes a marked person for as long as the accuser chooses which is usually a very long time. This is called ‘holding a grudge’. It is a type of condemnation where the accuser is acting as divine judge and basically throwing the person out because he has now been labeled as ‘bad’.

But what is wrong here? Does God operate in this way? No, He gave us His Son to set us free from all this. To throw out another person when you have not been thrown out by God is to demand payment where you have been freely forgiven.

“For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved” (John 3:16).

“If You, Lord, should mark iniquities, O Lord, who could stand? But there is forgiveness with You, that You may be feared” (Psalm 130: 3,4).

So who operates this way all the time and is defined by it? The devil. This is his territory, and he desires that we join him. In fact, he ever accuses us before God.

“Then I heard a loud voice saying in heaven, ‘Now salvation, and strength, and the kingdom of our God, and the power of His Christ have come, for the accuser of our brethren, who accused them before our God day and night, has been cast down. And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, and they did not love their lives to the death” (Rev.12:10, 11).

But we do not want to be operating with any of the above motives. They all speak lies about God and are of the devil.

“…If God is for us, who can be against us?” (Romans 8:31)

“Who shall bring a charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies. Who is he who condemns? It is Christ who died, and furthermore is also risen, who is even at the right hand of , who also makes intercession for us” (Romans 8:33,34

There is only one banner we should operate under, the banner of grace and love that I will write about next.