Whose Standard?

Dr. Joseph Stowell always used to preach, "We are a fallen race in a fallen place." That couldn't be more true but my question is: if people don't know that they are 'fallen' people, how can we as believers hold them to the standard of the Gospel? You see this all over the news and with celebrities. We talk about Tiger Woods and his exposure, Whitney Houston and her crack addiction, people sleeping with whoever, etc, etc. We are so quick to be so disappointed in what we hear around the world when in reality, they don't know better. It shouldn't surprise us that people are sleeping around, doing drugs, beating people physically and verbally, etc. If one doesn't know they have a disease, how can they be willing to accept the cure?

We do it all the time as church goers when 'different looking' people walk into the building. We judge people based off what they wear and how they talk before we know what they are going through. 1 Corinthians 5:12-13 says, "What business is it of mine to judge those outside the church? Are you not to judge those inside? God will judge those outside..." We can't expect non-believers to act like a believer so why do we judge them like one? Why do we get surprised when worldly people live worldly? If true believers would understand this, more people would be inside our churches hearing the Gospel. We would have a wider range of people willing to talk about their issues. We would see people for who they really are and genuinely love them like God intended. The real surprising and sad issue is the amount of believers who know the truth yet walk in a manner similar to Tiger Woods.