The Benefit of the Doubt

 I’ll give you the benefit of the doubt.

Have you thought about what this means anytime lately?

Have you exercised this judgment recently?

Have you considered this concept at all?

I'm going to give you the benefit of the doubt and assume you have.

Let's talk about the meaning of this idiom.

benefit of the doubt : the state of accepting something/someone as honest or deserving of trust even though there are reasons for doubt.

To decide that you will believe someone, even though you are not sure that what the person is saying is true.

I’m pretty sure most of us understand the definition and meaning of this phrase. The greater issue today is that fewer people seem to be practicing it. If we hear that someone has said something we disagree with, we don’t go to the person; we simply pass judgment. If a decision is made that we disagree with, rather than seeking to understand why, we rush to condemn.

The well of our grace seems to have run dry.

If you’re a Christ-follower, there’s an enormous conflict with this. The one we claim to follow is full of never-ending grace toward us. His mercies are new every morning.  His well of grace never runs dry. In fact, it's overflowing.

In a previous post I wrote 9 years ago I pointed this out:

In Proverbs 18:17, Solomon writes, "Any story sounds true until someone sets the record straight." Hearing this wisdom, isn't it good practice - biblical practice and principle - to "set the record straight", get the facts, go straight to the source before we believe anything? Isn't this a courtesy that we want others to extend to us? Of course it is. We WANT the benefit of the doubt! But for some reason, we often seem to be a whole lot slower to extend it to everyone else.

In Acts 6, Luke writes: "Now in these days when the disciples were increasing in number, a complaint by the Hellenists arose against the Hebrews because their widows were being neglected in the daily distribution of food." People were getting saved. And because the early church in Jerusalem was not only rapidly growing, but also multicultural and multilingual, the conditions were ripe for someone to get overlooked. And someone did. The Hellenist widows. And so "...a complaint arose." We quickly discern this word "complaint" to be negative. Mainly because none of us like receiving complaints. But sometimes a complaint - someone pointing out where something isn't right - is necessary. This is one of those cases. But rather than badmouth the Apostles behind their back or gossip about the travesty of someone playing favorites, the Hellenists came straight to the Apostles.

You know what they did? They gave the benefit of the doubt.

They chose to believe something good about someone, rather than something bad, when they had the option of doing either. They chose to believe that the Apostles might not be aware of this oversight. They decided to look for a solution rather than just point out a problem. And if you go on reading (Acts 6:1-7) you find that the result of this instance of the benefit of the doubt resulted in the first deacons being affirmed in the church.

Let's ask the Lord to fill us today with as much grace as we've received.

Let's ask Him to grow those fruits of the Spirit in us like patience and kindness and gentleness.

Let's give others the benefit of the doubt. Lord knows, it's most certainly been extended to us.