To those who support laws against blasphemy and who believe they are justified in killing a person in order to defend God’s “honor,” what makes you think that the most merciful Lord is pleased by such “justice”? This is man’s justice, not God’s justice. It is the measure of mercy and purity of love in our offering that determines whether that offering is acceptable to God. Even self-sacrifice, if done selfishly primarily to seek our own reward, is not a work of love for God, and killing any person, if done to please and satisfy the heart steeped in hatred, is an affront to God and an abomination. Between glorious martyrdom and tragic suicide is a gap just as wide as that which separates heaven and hell.
Only God can truly see into the depths of our hearts and only God sitting most high can truly judge whether the will and spirit underlying our actions is worthy of, or falls short of, his honor, glory, and grace. We will have our hands full enough if we only heed God’s command to love others as we love ourselves. Let us not attempt to single out the sinners, but be content with identifying the deserving and raising them up to sainthood, for then, even if we err, we nevertheless will be acting in accordance with the Spirit of love and God’s will. We ourselves are guilty of pride if we act under the presumption that we possess the divine insight necessary to convict another of “unworthiness” before God. Moreover, if we claim the right to render “final justice” to others, we place ourselves in grave danger, and if we make a mistake, we cannot then blame God if it is his will to dispense to us the same “justice.”
We will not succeed if we try to substitute our judgment in place of God’s, so let us not attempt to usurp God’s judgment seat lest we fall quickly away from God’s throne into grave sin and bitter darkness. God does not need our help to defend his honor, but in Scripture we find that he has asked us to reach out in love to others. Although slights or insults to God may offend, disgust, or anger us, we need not worry about whether God is capable of defending his own holy name. From the very beginning, the first Word was with God; later on, we received the good Word from God, and we may rest assured that, in the end, the last Word will be God’s.