There's No Excuse for Making Excuses

Examples of excuses given for wrong actions

We're all tempted to make excuses for our actions. It's the human nature.

We all want to pretend that the bad things we do aren't our fault.

We like to pretend we're not guilty.

Ge 3:12–13 by Adam and Eve for eating the forbidden fruit; Ex 32:22–24 by Aaron for making the golden calf; 1 Sa 13:11–12 by Saul for acting as priest

By Saul for not fully obeying the Lord:

1 Sa 15:20–21; 1 Sa 15:24–25

Examples of excuses given for inaction

Many characters in the Bible made excuses.

By the lazy:

Je 1:6 by Jeremiah

By the fearful:

Mt 25:41–45 by the ignorant

Excuses given by those unwilling to follow Jesus Christ

Luke 14:16–24 LEB

But he said to him, “A certain man was giving a large banquet and invited many. And he sent his slave at the hour of the banquet to say to those who have been invited, ‘Come, because now it is ready!’ And they all alike began to excuse themselves. The first said to him, ‘I have purchased a field, and I must go out to look at it. I ask you, consider me excused.’ And another said, ‘I have purchased five yoke of oxen, and I am going to examine them. I ask you, consider me excused.’ And another said, ‘I have married a wife, and for this reason I am not able to come.’ And the slave came and reported these things to his master. Then the master of the house became angry and said to his slave, ‘Go out quickly into the streets and alleys of the city and bring in here the poor and crippled and blind and lame!’ And the slave said, ‘Sir, what you ordered has been done, and there is still room.’ And the master said to the slave, ‘Go out into the highways and hedges and press them to come in, so that my house will be filled! For I say to you that none of those persons who were invited will taste my banquet!’ ”

See also Mt 22:2–3; Lk 9:59–62

There is no excuse for sin

God doesn't excuse sin. God forgives sin.

Romans 1:20 LEB

For from the creation of the world, his invisible attributes, both his eternal power and deity, are discerned clearly, being understood in the things created, so that they are without excuse.