Sav's Sins

Sir James Wilson Vincent Savile OBE KCSG (/sævil/; 31 October 1926 - 29 October 2011) was an English DJ, television and radio personality who hosted BBC shows including Top of the Pops and Jim'll Fix It. He raised an estimated £40 million for charities and, during his lifetime, was widely praised for his personal qualities and as a fund-raiser. [1][2]

Thus reads Jimmy Saville's Wikipedia entry. Of course, it goes on to list the horrific sex crimes it is said he committed against vulnerable people. Yet if someone were to respond and say, "Sure, he did some bad things, but this cannot be allowed to detract from all the fundraising he did, and all the children's dreams he fulfilled on his TV show", would you be persuaded? Probably not. Yet this is what so many of us do with our own lives. Sure, we get things wrong. "Okay, we aren't perfect, but surely God will overlook these things and let us into heaven on account of all the good we have done?" Such a calculation grossly underestimates the weight and horror of our guilt. If you cannot bring yourself to adjudicate Saville as a good bloke over all, neither apply such a standard to yourself.

For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. Romans 6:23

Image by Engin Akyurt from Pixabay