A parable for those who feel they are more righteous than others:

The ruler of a small village once took a long journey with his faithful warriors, leaving his wife and large family in the care of his subjects. When he returned, he found that the people of his kingdom had killed every member of his family, including his beloved children.

Being a just ruler, the king decided to talk to each subject individually before passing judgment, thus assuring that no one had been wrongly accused. But the king learned that every person in the village had participated in the slaughter. Some who had participated in the deaths of two or three family members were quickly executed. A few of the subjects had actively joined in for the killing of all his family members, and their deaths were immediate.

As the interrogations began to wind down, a man appeared before the king and pleaded for mercy. “I am not as evil as the others,” the man protested, “for I am guilty of killing just one of your daughters, and I made sure that the death was swift and painless.”

The king at once ordered his warriors to seize the man and take him away. As the man was led off to be executed, the king declared, “You fool! Is the death of but one child any less heinous than the death of all? You diminish the value of the one by making her death less of a crime than the deaths of the many.”


2 Cor 1:13