Running Up The Score

There is an unwritten agreement in sports that brings frowns upon the excessive scoring of points or goals when winning is a near guarantee. In some cases we have applied a “mercy rule” of forced surrender to protect the weak. The message is: we should take it easy on the competition, we shouldn’t pile on or attempt to purposely shame them. If we know we’re going to beat them anyway, then it doesn’t matter if we beat them by 1 or we beat them by 20, except that beating them by 20 will most likely dampen their spirits. There are many of life’s lessons that can be taken from this show of compassion that man created in order to care for his fellow man but this rule, this principle of man-made mercy, only changes the goal posts.
Good people with good hearts and good lives, make good rules. Good people grimace at the outward display of cold hard ambition thrust upon the weakness of the inferior. Why? Because blood-thirsty fight fans don’t want to see blood? No, because it’s no longer good competition!
Therefore, good people’s basis for goodness lies in their own good feelings, which come from good origins but are subject to bad teaching.
The mercy rule was created to make us feel good. Like a trophy for participation, it means we won but we didn’t get greedy. And therefore, everybody won? But everybody didn’t win, and everybody never wins because winning is final; it’s definite; it’s exclusive. Running up the score is not the insult; its’ the assurance of winning. When David killed Goliath he sunk a stone into his skull, stabbed him with his own sword and cut off his head, 1 Samuel 17: 49-51. Cutting off Goliath’s head was the assurance and the final proof of David’s victory.
Unlike the example of man’s weakness for merciless sports whippings, David’s battle called for no mercy; for the good of Israel. He came in the name of Jehovah, fully prepared to finalize the victory. Likewise our attempts to do good should be grounded in God’s good. They should be an overwhelming effort to defeat the enemy; to run up the score. Man-made mercy is often an attempt to shield ourselves from witnessing our own evil intensions.

The standard of good we often claim
Excuses wrong and places blame
Not “standard” at all, it’s never the same
And can’t be used in Jesus’ name