Around the same time I watched an elected politician describing a particular societal ill that was manifesting itself in the behaviors of citizens within his district. He outlined the problem and the bad behavior and it consequences, and then said, “That is not who we are.”

This phrase gets used commonly in elections when the opposition’s proposals are seen to be egregiously bad. I’ve heard coaches use it in interviews after an embarrassing loss. It is a common expression to distance oneself and one’s group from something that is embarrassing or evil, and we would want to believe is completely out of character with our normal way of doing things.

So, if those bad decisions, circumstances, or results are not “us,” then who are we? Are we always good, spiritual, law-abiding, winners?

A pastor says that sinful behavior by some in his congregation is not “who we are.” But because these sins did in fact, happen, and because most of us can think of circumstances where similar things may have happened there or elsewhere, I don’t know that we should say that this is not who we (as Christians generally or church members specifically) are. It is, sadly, who some of us are when put in certain situations.

Similarly, when citizens break the law or take it into their own hands with evil results, we cannot say that this is not who we are. The whole reason laws are necessary is that, left to who we are, we are capable of all sorts of words, actions, and decisions that are much more self serving and good citizenship. Breaking laws is not just the realm of certain classes, but it seems that all sorts of people will decide to act outside the law given circumstances that generate enough anger or opportunity.

I completely understand the use of the phrase. However, I think it is a way of denying what is true about all of us. That is, we are not basically “good people”—at least not according to the one standard that matters and is always true. And Christians who have shown great spirituality in some areas can also have glaring deficiencies in sanctification in others.

We want to be able to put people into the category of good and bad—even among Christians. If the last number of years hasn’t taught us how wrong such categorization can be, then you haven’t been paying attention. A Christian leader whose ministry yielded amazing results but whose personal life held a pattern of sinful and abusive behavior causes us to move from universal adulation to wholesale condemnation. I get it, but isn’t that naive?

If we can simply say, “that’s not who we are,” we ignore just how bad we might become if left to ourselves and given the opportunity to get away with something. I heard Pastor Chuck Swindoll say that “Character is who you are in the dark.” He was referring to those places where we are convinced we are not seen. He’s correct.

But I also think that honesty about character requires we say that our native condition is “there is none righteous, not even one.” And even as Christians we must own that we are still subject to selfishness, the pull of “the flesh” as it wars against the Spirit of God in us (spend some time in Galatians 5 as a reminder of this), and easy acceptance of cultural, spiritual, or political tribalism where we always see “our” group as good and the other as evil. What is being decried in the moment as “not us” may be something we haven’t engaged in—yet. But we are certainly able to be just as bad if left to ourselves.

Thankfully (beyond measure), a loving Father has given us a salvation through Jesus that doesn’t leave us to ourselves. The Lord Jesus promised that it was to our advantage that, after his crucifixion and resurrection that he go away, both to prepare a place for us (John 14:1-6), and to send the Holy Spirit from the Father who would be dwelling in us (John 14:15-31, 16:4-15). God the Spirit brings both the promise and the power to make us holy, and the conviction to show us where we are still unholy. And if we walk in this Spirit—seeking to keep in step with him, we have the ability to resist the flesh and see the fruit of the Spirit produced (again, read all of Galatians 5).

So, I think a better phrase, at least for Christians to describe the bad actions or words of others, would be, “that is not who we are supposed to be.” And we use each of these moments to ask God to keep us from those appalling behaviors, even as we pray for repentance and restoration for those who have failed.

Robert Robinson’s famous words in an old hymn should not ever be far from our minds.

Oh, to grace how great a debtor daily I’m constrained to be!

Let thy goodness, like a fetter, bind my wandering heart to thee:

prone to wander, Lord, I feel it, prone to leave the God I love;

here’s my heart, O take and seal it; seal it for thy courts above.