Everybody sides with the victim. Every convincing argument makes the "good side" to be as victims of the evil, cunning, manipulating "bad side". This tactic takes away the humanity of the other side. How easy do we forget that we're all children of divine heritage?
Every great speaker makes one side great and one side bad. Perhaps too often we get caught up in the rhetoric and forget to discern the sin from the sinner and end up dismissing both. Perhaps in our minds we can see the error of their ways, but does that justify us in becoming as Satan the Great Accuser, who seeks to make a case against us to God? No.
Scriptures say that evil will destroy the evil, making it very clear that those that dig a pit for their neighbor, will fall into that pit themselves. Likewise, if you seek to bring others down, then you'll just bring yourself down. The most detailed and voluminous of a case we make against others will not make us any more righteous or good in God's eyes. Holding on to those offenses is like holding onto cinder blocks under water. We're only justified/freed/saved by the the one on one relationship we strive to have with God.
In the Sermon on the Mount, the Savior is constantly admonishing His listeners to be truly faithful to God for God's sake, letting all else (popularity, wealth, status, vanity) fall where it may. The Savior said to forgive and if we don't forgive then we aren't forgiven ourselves. Makes me conclude that the process for our forgiveness is that of not having bad feelings toward others cloud our desires and thus forgiveness would be of no value because the sin remains. We are forgiven as we forgive, as we obey, as we love and if we hold on to the offenses in our hearts then we cannot be forgiven fully because our hearts are not given fully to the Lord.
Satan is constantly dangling temptations to gossip or murmur about the weaknesses or foolishness of others. Often he tries to implement a sense of unfairness and entitlement to our minds that makes it easier for us to justify bringing others down. The opportunities to fall into these traps are always lingering and in turn the opportunity to ignore them and do something edifying or productive are just as present. When others wrong us, we're not okay to wrong them back. Thats the "eye for eye, tooth for a tooth" mentality that the Savior also mentioned in the Sermon on the Mount as being done away with, and that "whosoever is angry with his brother shall be in danger of the judgment: and whosoever shall say to his brother, Raca, shall be in danger of the council: but whosoever shall say, Thou fool, shall be in danger of hell fire" (Matthew 5:22).
We can avoid these falls by seeking to serve others, to build them up, to love them and that means forgiving them the offenses toward us. By doing this we can be perfect in God's eyes, we'll see others as God does, with love and hope. God doesn't help those that help themselves but loves/helps those that love/help others.
