As a Christ follower, certain actions are considered "sin," that is disobedience to the will of God. Occasionally, Christians will disagree whether something is sin or not, but for the most part we agree. What disturbs me (and I'm sure I do it sometimes) is when some Christians treat certain sins like they're not that bad.
For instance, I have friends who consider themselves devout Christ followers but are living with their girlfriends/boyfriends. Of course, living together isn't a sin, and neither is sharing the same bed (technically) but having sex outside of a marriage relationship definitely is. If I'm brave enough to ask them about this, most of them kind of waver "Yeah, some people think it's a sin . . ." or "It's not really that bad a sin (if it is one)." How do you respond to this? I'm amazed too at the number of Christians who admit to me cheerfully that they cheat on their taxes (a double whammy as they are not submitting to the authorities of the land and they are lying). Gossiping too is a sin and I'm shocked by the amount of it I here. Even when pointed out to good Christian brothers and sisters of mine, I've heard my point laughed off nervously. But they didn't stop.
Another one is gluttony (definitely a sin). For some reason believers think that if it is a special occasion, gluttony is OK. Don't even get me started on the Christians who come to O.G. and make themselves completely ill on excessive amounts of "never ending" food on Sundays! One that I'm encountering a lot more then I used to is in regard to alcohol. Now I don't think that drinking alcohol is a sin (more on this in a future post), but the Bible makes it pretty clear that drunkenness is. How then should I react to Christian friends laughing about how drunk they got or admitting that they will probably overdo it when they go out on the weekend or celebrate their birthday? I could go on and on . . .
I'm not so disturbed that Christians sin, after all Christian's are still sinful beings. But I am concerned when we become OK with it, when we begin to accept it, dismiss it, or even embrace it. I'm reading through the Old Testament and you pick up pretty fast that God takes our sin very, very seriously. Should we not as well?
May Light Increase!
Testing
2 weeks ago
8 comments:
This is so true, I definatly agree with you. Keep up the good work!
Wow, good post Mark! It's true though that we've made a lot of sin ok, and even acceptable. We excuse it away and justify it and end up looking not like a Christian who occasionally sins, but like a Sinner who's occasionally a Christian. Sad. (Let me just point out here that I do not actually believe in the loss of salvation, but am just pointing out what it "looks like" at the farthest extreme of "justified sinning")
I should really take on blogging again...
Since you are going through the Old Testament anyhow I challenge you to find out more in the scriptures about where we in our western civilization (or christian civilization, including the middle east and europe) have based our opinions on the institution of marriage...what constitutes marriage? Not that I have done this yet myself, but rather that I am working through this myself right now.
I am going to blog now! Thanks for the inspiration!
Great reminder, Mark!
Could it be that we use people to gauge our behavior rather than Christ's example? I'm afraid I have to admit that I've been with Christian friends doing some of the things you mentioned when suddenly those things didn't seem to be "that bad" since we were all Christians and didn't have to "be an example" to anyone! How very wrong!
As long as we take our cue from people we will fall deeper into this trap of minimizing our sinful actions. I recently taught a class where we lightly touched on this issue and interestingly enough I found that the mature Christians in the class were more interested in justifying these sins while the new Christians wanted to discuss the reasons why these were sins. We NEED these reminders and we need to talk about this in our homes, circle of friends, churches etc.
It's sad that Jobina's response is so true; and I'm just as guilty as the next person.
"Search my heart O God...point out anything in me that offends you....." Ps. 139:23,24
Love, Mom
This kind of discussion tends to bring me back to the same place. Thank God for God, for forgiveness of sins, and the gentle proding of the Holy Spirit, and grace, yes, grace, the grace that God extends to us, we should be extending to ourselves and to others. I'm not saying by any means that our sin is justified, but our sin is forgiven and it's time Christians stop embracing the dark and pursue instead to be engulfed by the Light. Over and over we will be confronted with the sin in our lives, and to make that our focus makes life a pretty dark place to live.
"But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from ALL (emphasis my own)sin." 1 John 1:7
It's just the flip side of what you're talking about Mark, that's all. Again, not that I think sin should be ignored, on the contrary, I believe when we walk in the Light, the darkness in our own lives will be uncovered.
I love to be loved by God! I love walking in the Light!
Jacquie
I am soooo loving everything about these comments! I'm feeling less alone in the world and hopeful for the future of showing the world ALOT of Love and grace.Thanks Mark...for your blog.
You're right. I think it becomes dangerous when we gray the lines. Instead of remembering that sin is very black and white.
Good post!
Excellent thoughts everyone. Sadly I have been too busy to contribute much to the conversation I started but rest assured, I am EXTREMELY interested in this topic! Balancing a holy revulsion for sin and embracing grace for oneself and others is a tough balance. I just think that I'm seeing go too much towards what some theolgians have called "cheap grace" or even worse, a reluctance to label anything sin. Yes we are sinful, but what can we do about it?
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