Do Not Commit the Same Sin You Condemned in Others

Note from today’s Bible reading: 1 Samuel 28-31; Psalm 121; 123-125; 128-130

After the Lord had rejected Saul because of his sin, the king assembled his army and prepared for battle against the Philistines. Yet when he “saw the camp of the Philistines, he was afraid and his heart trembled greatly” (1 Samuel 28:5).

Saul first sought the Lord’s counsel, but the Lord did not answer him. Desperate, the king told his servants to find “a woman who is a medium” so that he could “inquire of her” (1 Samuel 28:7). When they found such a woman, Saul disguised himself, went to her, and asked her to conjure up Samuel from the dead.

Initially, this woman thought this was a trap because the king had previously cut off the mediums and spiritists from the land. This was done because that practice was condemned by God in the Law (Deuteronomy 18:10-11). Yet Saul assured her that nothing would happen to her if she did this.

Previously, Saul had rightly driven out those who engaged in this condemned practice from the land. Yet now, he was actively participating in it. He was exhibiting a double standard, something we are often tempted to do, in which he did what was wrong even after opposing the same practice.

So do not commit the same sin you condemned in others. The lesson is not to ignore or tolerate sin. Instead, we need to make sure that we are not acting hypocritically by doing those things we know to be wrong while portraying ourselves as being against what we are secretly doing.