On my way home from taking Jesse to school, I caught the very end of a radio broadcast in which the speaker read a letter to the editor in which the author said he was sick of hearing about sin and wanted only a religion that taught things like gentleness and tolerance.

That’s understandable: no one really likes hearing about sin, especially their own. But that attitude is a bit like going to a doctor and saying, “I just want you to teach me about wellness and health: I don’t want to hear anything about this mass that you’re going to tell me needs to be removed.” What kind of doctor would be doing his patient any favors by telling him only the positive and neglecting to deal with the unpleasant negative of the ailment that will destroy him?

What exactly is sin? Besides detailing specific sins, the Bible speaks of these broader characterictics:

1. Falling short of God’s glory

Romans 3:23: For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God.

2. Failure to believe God

Hebrews 11:6: But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.

3. Failure to do good

James 4:17: Therefore to him that knoweth to do good, and doeth it not, to him it is sin.

4. Unrighteousness

I John 5:17a: All unrighteousness is sin

5. Acting against conscience, acting apart from faith

Romans 14:23: And he that doubteth is damned if he eat, because he eateth not of faith: for whatsoever is not of faith is sin

6. Transgressing the law

I John 3:4: Whosoever committeth sin transgresseth also the law: for sin is the transgression of the law.

We might think, well, sure, defined like that, yes, we’re all sinners, but my sin isn’t as bad as other people’s. Going back to our patient analogy, that’s like saying my illness isn’t as bad as the other guy’s, so I don’t have to worry about mine. According to Romans 3:23 mention above, the standard is not how we compare to others: it’s how we compare to God. I heard it once described like this: if we all needed to leap over a 500 foot chasm, some would make it farther than others, but we’d all fall short.

The sin Adam and Eve engaged in which plunged the rest of the human race into sin was not what we would call gross sin: they simply did what God told them not to do. Jesus said the greatest commandment is “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind.” It follows, then, that the greatest sin is to fail to love God with all our hearts, souls, and minds.

So, a sinful nature is there within all of us. We can’t ignore it. It’s too destructive. We know it’s destructiveness and painfulness when others sin against us. It separates us from God: But your iniquities have separated between you and your God, and your sins have hid his face from you, that he will not hear. Isaiah 59:2. Psalm 38 details the physical and mental anguish resulting from sin, not to mention the eternal punishment.

Thankfully there is a remedy: I Corinthians 15:3-4: For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures;  And that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures.

Isaiah 53:5-6: But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed.All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the LORD hath laid on him the iniquity of us all.

Because the Lord Jesus, who was inherently sinless and who is God Himself, took on our sin and the punishment for it, when we believe on Him, all our sin can be forgiven. Even after becoming believers, on the basis of Christ’s death and resurrection, when we sin we can come to Him and have the slate wiped clean. I John 1:9: If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

When He has cleansed our sin away, dwells within us, and given us a new nature, then we are enabled to show forth love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith,  meekness, temperance (Galatians 5:22-23)– all the good and positive qualities that are a blessing to other people.

I hadn’t planned to write about this today: I had two other posts in mind and was trying to decide which one to go with when I heard that bit of a radio broadcast, and as I thought meditated on what I had heard, some of these other truths came to mind, so I felt that perhaps this was what I should write about today.

Proverbs 28:13: He that covereth his sins shall not prosper: but whoso confesseth and forsaketh them shall have mercy.

Yesterday was the kind of day some harried mother must have had when she coined the phrase, “If a woman’s place is in the home, why am I always in the car?”

I knew I had to be at one place at 9 a.m., but I hadn’t foreseen several other things coming up and errands piling upon errands throughout the day. I won’t bore you with a blow-by-blow account, but by 5:30 p.m. I ended up bringing fast-food dinner home to sit down for a few minutes until church. During the course of the day I was informed of an opportunity for service at church that evening — actually more of a responsibility than an opportunity. Maybe because it was unexpected, maybe because I was already tired — I’m a homebody, and being out all day makes me tired and a little cranky — I did not react with joy and enthusiasm at the news. Some of the unexpected errands had to do with preparations for this unexpected event. By church time, honestly, if I hadn’t had this responsibility, I might have talked myself into being too tired to go.

Yet we live by faith, not by feeling, and part of faith is not just what we believe but also the outworking of that faith into our daily lives, sometimes in spite of feelings. So I went. And as so often happens, I was glad I did. I had begun the evening tired and harried, and came home joyful and refreshed.

That has happened so often in my life: I remember times of being asked to do something and not feeling the liberty to say no (it’s not that I never say no — I feel perfectly free to decline at times), yet instead of “serving the Lord with gladness” I dragged my feet and chafed at the intrusion on my time and energy. Then afterward I was so ashamed of myself for my negative feelings and so immensely glad I done the task  — not just in the satisfaction of having done one’s “duty” or “a good deed” but — I don’t know how to describe it — just joy in actually serving.

Last night I picked up a copy of Joy And Strength, a devotional book of quotes and verses compiled by Mary Wilder Tileston. I had gone through it a few times several years ago and had it nearby to glean some of the quotes of it I wanted to remember. The reading for yesterday fit perfectly:

He hath chosen us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love.
EPHESIANS 1:4

O LOVE, who formedst me to wear
The image of Thy Godhead here;
Who soughtest me with tender care
Through all my wanderings wild and drear;
O Love! I give myself to Thee,
Thine ever, only Thine to be.
JOHANN SCHEFFLER

WE live not for ourselves, but for God; for some purpose of His; for some special end to be accomplished, which He has willed to be accomplished by oneself, and not by another; something which will be left undone, if we do it not, or not be done as it would have been done, if the one ordained to it had done it. We live gifted with certain forms of spiritual grace embodied in us, for some purpose of Divine Love to be fulfiled by us, some idea of the Divine Mind to be imaged forth in our creaturely state. To devote oneself to God is to concentrate the powers of one’s being to their ordained end, and therefore to have the happiest and truest life–happiest, because happiness must be in the accordance of these powers with the law of their creation, and truest, because the attainment of the highest glory must be in the accomplishment of the end for which we were created.
T. T. CARTER

The May 21-25 readings are good and applicable as well.

I had a bit of a wait in a not-so-fast-food drive-through last night, and I was listening to a radio preacher in the mean time. I think the general topic of the message was about temptation — he did talk about that a while. But at one point he mentioned (not by name) someone well-known in a particular church who said all the right things and took all the right stands and yet fell into the sin of adultery: worse yet, he would not admit it until he realized irrefutable evidence was available. Members of the church were hurt and scandalized…and it was at that point my turn came at the drive-through window, so I don’t know the rest of the story or why the preacher brought it up.

I don’t know (or want to know) who he was talking about, but it brought me back to my early married days when someone I had looked up to as a spiritual leader in college fell into the same sin. He was on the mission field at the time, would not repent when confronted, then went on to live a very secular lifestyle, lived as though he never had been a professing Christian, and antagonized his wife when she attended church.

I have to admit that hurt. And I was only a friend: I only had a glimpse of what his wife went through, and I was especially concerned for his children and for the students at the Bible institute he had been a part of on the mission field. When things like this happen, it can cause some to be shaken in their faith. Perhaps they think if this person fell, anyone can fall (and I think this may have been the point the radio preacher was getting to). Or perhaps they think if this person wasn’t genuine, as in the case mentioned (though genuine believers do fall into sin, too, as David did with Bathesheba) then how can any of it be real?

For some people it’s not a distant scandal involving a famous preacher that has shaken them, or even a spiritual leader in their own church, but someone much closer: a father, brother, or personal friend.

However much it hurts and baffles, someone else’s fall is no reason to become confused or discouraged and throw in the towel — or, as some unbelievers might, to point the finger and use the situation to discount all of Christianity. “Every one of us shall give account of himself to God” (Romans 14:12). We’re responsible for our own walk and our own lives no matter what anyone else does. His grace is sufficient for our every need.

What are some wrong reactions when someone falls?

1. “I knew it all the time: I knew something wasn’t right about them.”

Love “believeth all things, hopeth all things” (I Corinthians 13: 7b) — not to the point of naivety, but in general expecting good rather than suspecting evil. In the situation I mentioned, after the fact several people brought up to the pastoral leadership situations and concerns they had from years before when the man was in graduate school. The pastor and elders had to say this was not the time for that: those things should have been brought up at the time, if it was something serious enough to be of concern. Who knows, perhaps a confrontation then would have prevented the serious damage that occurred later.

2. “Can you imagine? Can you believe it? I would never do such a thing!”

Wherefore let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall (I Corinthians 10:12). We’re all sinful beings: given the right circumstances and temptations, any of us is vulnerable. Pride goeth before destruction, and an haughty spirit before a fall (Proverbs 16:18).

3. “If he fell, if he couldn’t live the Christan life, there is no way I can.”

There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man: but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it (I Corinthians 10:13). These situations can be a wake-up call, reminding us of how much we need to walk closely with the Lord and how much we need His grace to keep from sin, but, as mentioned earlier, we should not lose hope.

There are Biblical ways to respond to such a situation that are beyond the scope of this particular post, but I’ll just mention them in passing: Galatians 6:1 says, “Brethren, if a man be overtaken in a fault, ye which are spiritual, restore such an one in the spirit of meekness; considering thyself, lest thou also be tempted.” Matthew 7 speaks of taking the “beam” out of our own eye before trying to remove the speck or “mote” from someone else’s (interestingly, most people stop with the first verse of that chapter, the “judge not,” and misapply it in all kinds of ways, but miss the fact that verse 5 indicates we are supposed to help each other with these things — but we’re supposed to have the right attitude and take care of our own issues first). Matthew 18:15-20 outlines the course of church discipline, and what steps are taken depends on the reaction of the offender; I Corinthians 5 shares the extreme end of church discipline when the offender does not repent after every other attempt has been made. If you read both of those chapters closely, the hopeful outcome is restoration and forgiveness, not a self-righteous denunciation of the offender. There are other reasons for church discipline: the purity of the church (someone going around in open, unrepentant sin is going to tempt others to do so just by their “getting away with it”) and the testimony of the church (many times the New Testament lays out a certain course of action so that unbelievers won’t blaspheme). But the primary purpose of these actions is to help bring the offender to realize what he has done, confess and repent of it, and to restore him to fellowship with God and others.

Also, all of these verses about church discipline do not mean that we turn into spiritual policemen, constantly watching out for others to misstep so we can pounce on them. No, there are times to exercise forbearance, to overlook a fault. We handle an unkind word or leaving socks on the floor far differently than we would handle stealing, lying, or immorality, though those “lesser issues” might still need to be dealt with.

But my main reason for writing today is not so much to talk about church discipline: I wanted rather just to encourage us that, even though it wounds us when someone else falls, and we pray for that person and do all in our power to see them get things right, our ultimate focus should be on the One Who will never fail us.

Hebrews 12:1-2: Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us, Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.