You are the furthest thing from one who would murder, and yet, at one time or another you have had murder in your heart. Confess now! You too have wanted someone to disappear from the face of the Earth. When you hold on to a grudge from the past and will not erase it, what are you doing but in effect decimating the one who offended you?

I know My children like to think they’re above it all. Yet, beloveds, you too have spoken untruths. You have done a little cheat here or there. You have done shoddy work. You have let another down a time or two. You have driven too fast, and you have run away from events you didn’t want to face. You have mixed up facts. Is this not true? Just between you and Me, is this not true?

As wonderful as you are, the difference between you and those who are accused, those imprisoned, and those executed may be a skinnier line than you liked to think!

It is not My will for anyone to hurt another nor to take another’s presumed belongings and all those unfair things. It is also not My will that you discount those who are guilty of not having your vision. Someone has acted out what you only thought of in anger. Beloveds, you are not a stranger to temptation. You have been tempted here and there. The difference between you and the one you judge is that he was tempted and succumbed. He acted on his adverse thoughts while you did not act on yours.

I do congratulate you. I am glad, and I am grateful. For all intents and purposes, you have done the right thing. Your brother found guilty was not as wise as you and he has fallen. Perhaps he was not so blessed as you, and you are not so virtuous as you like to think. Perhaps you were lucky. Most certainly you were fortunate to have made less dire choices.

There is also the sense in which the injurer, as difficult as it may be to accept, did not do a bad deed exactly the way the world sees it, but rather gave a service. At the very least, you can acknowledge that his dishonorable acts serve you in reinforcing your desire to be honorable.

I make no excuses, beloveds, because I have no excuses to make. I do not throw any one away. No matter what world crime has been committed, I do not say the committers are of no use. I do not say they are worthless. They may well, in their offenses, have been expressing the worthlessness they held themselves in. Had they greater self-worth, perhaps they would have made other decisions.

Beloveds, there is the sense in which you cannot know what is good and bad. You can know what you prefer, yet you cannot lay down a decision. You can decide for yourself, of course, yet it is not for you to make haughty pronouncements that someone is good and someone else is bad. You will have such thoughts, I understand, and yet, it behooves you to keep these thoughts to yourself.

You have stumbled and fallen. Perhaps you picked yourself up. Perhaps someone else picked you up. Someone else may stumble and fall and still lie there, and no one comes to help. Must you walk by, or read about, the man who stayed in the mud only to condemn him? No matter what you think of his lying there, he is still My child just as much as you.