inequality of sin
Wednesday January 11th 2006, 11:49 am
Filed under: church, thinking...

ugh. i’m so distracted today! and it boils down to the church’s obsession with ranking sins. i posted about this once before. but this time is different: a friend of mine flirted with some bad choices for a time this past fall, but has moved past it and is clearly making right choices in this area now. but there’s a woman who knows, and she’s deciding it’s her place to tell the world (i’m exaggerating a bit — but she’s told multiple people, all out of “concern” and “righteous anger”). a meeting took place with my friend and some others, and this woman was allowed to be there (though she had no business being there) and totally laid into my friend. no one stopped her. no one mentioned the biblical fact that her emotional accusations and gossip are sin — current and unnamed sin, not past, confessed, forgiven sin like my friend’s.

is it just our fallen human nature? is it the impact of duality and modernism? what is it what drives us in the church to create such inequality of sin? sure, there are different natural consequences of sin — i’m not arguing against that. but, it’s the speck-and-plank thing. we’re so bad at addressing this in the church.


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I’m in the middle of that here being accused of being soft on sin. Which, you know…maybe I am. I still think it’s the Spirit’s job to convict AND restore. Jesus’ job to ‘pay’ for that sin. My job to love through it as best I can - knowing I’m not ever going to know it all or ‘get it.’

Is the propensity to hang each other out to dry the result of a sheltered, risk-free life that has never tasted complete failure? Does it come from having such a ‘vanilla’ life of little to no impact on a lost culture, that they’ve forgotten that the only people God uses are failures?

Is it because we really don’t see each other as brothers and sisters, but rather constituents?

I don’t know, marko. But it is disheartening.

Comment by Grant 01.11.06 @ 12:23 pm

I have found this to be a real problem as a youthpastor, western mentality is that we focus on sexual sins over anything else, we neglect gluttony because we for the most part like to eat, we ignore lying cause its so easy…as a person who lives and is a youthpastor in the west, but was born in USSR and lived in eastern europe for ten years its easy to see that western culture is OBSESSED with sex, whether from indulging point of view or from judging (rightueous lol) view. I see this happening in Russia now as well as western mentallity sets in…we either abuse it or condemn it instead of having a healthy understanding and of it…perhaps that is why so many Christian people cant even enjoy it in marriage due to all the abuse or taboos of it growing up in this society…

Comment by Paul Morgun 01.11.06 @ 12:30 pm

by the way the reason i am tlaking about sexual sin is because ussually it is ranked as the highest sin in the west…to clarify things! :) i need a spell checker! :)

Comment by Paul Morgun 01.11.06 @ 12:35 pm

We as a church must have a better understanding of grace, and do a better job of exhibiting it. It is by grace that we are God’s people. How dare us not extend that same grace to one another.

We need to allow people to live their lives for an audience of One, that of course being God Himself. Becuase of God’s grace He accepts us just as we are, and right where we are in life. But He loves us too much to leave us that way. When we allow people to live their lives for Jesus, He is going to love them back to where they ought to be.

Comment by Brian 01.11.06 @ 1:25 pm

Grace, Grace and Grace…

For a long time, I thought that I hated the American Church because of the way we have dealt with the issue of sin. Then I realized that I don’t hate the church, I love the church, but I hate the way we respond to sin, particularly when it comes to the sins of our leaders.

There is a freedom that comes in realizing what truly despicable, ugly, sinful people we are apart from Christ. I fear that too many in the Christian fold have forgotten that it’s Christ alone who makes us holy. I love this chunk of scripture from John Chapter 5:20&21 (The Message):

All that passing laws against sin did was produce more lawbreakers. But sin didn’t, and doesn’t, have a chance in competition with the aggressive forgiveness we call grace. When it’s sin versus grace, grace wins hands down. All sin can do is threaten us with death, and that’s the end of it. Grace, because God is putting everything together again through the Messiah, invites us into life–a life that goes on and on and on, world without end.

I can’t help but remember that the Devil has an angel’s face…and I wonder how many times he’s shown up in our churches, spoken to our leaders, and been allowed to dupe us away from grace and into judgment, “concern” and “righteous anger”.

…Sorry for the rant on your blog Marko…I am just so broken hearted over the way so many of our fellow Christians “shoot our wounded”, and dishonor the grace that our Savior died to provide us with.

Comment by Sean 01.11.06 @ 1:42 pm

I totally feel for this guy. Just a couple weeks ago I held a meeting with one of my youth workers who was gossiping about me in “confidentiality” to other people. If I was actually guilty, that would be one thing, but the accusations were completely unfounded and made up from almost nothing. Fortunately, in my case, the church leadership is supporting me and is taking necessary action, but it still hurts and is still very frustrating to experience.

Comment by Tim 01.11.06 @ 9:49 pm

mark,
i’ve been her. i probably still am her in many ways as much as i try not to be. it’s so hard to figure out grace and accountability and responsibility. it’s not as easy as grace grace. in fact all of you who are talking about grace for the “sinner” sound really pissed at the person who isn’t offering grace. it feels a little weird. for me, my “concern” and “rightous anger” was a matter of protecting myself from (past) hurts. trying to somehow make the world right…especially in the church. it’s taken me a long time to see people as individuals and not just a representation of what the people in my life have done to me. i have come to a freeer way of looking and interacting with people, but i still struggle with the whole concept of grace and consequences and sin(mine verses others, and all that goes with that. it just seems complicated. anyway, just thought i would share.

Comment by sevita 01.12.06 @ 9:05 pm

Mark
I have problems maybe like the one your friend had in the comment above. I am a broken, flaud human who desires to serve a holy God and I am failing drastacelly. One sin inparticular has plaged me since puburity and it absoutely discusts me. If anyone new my true heart they would never speak to me again. I desire to serve God and I want to be near him but I consistantely allow this sin to seperate us. I have given my will to this sin so many times is feels as though it owns me. I don’t know what else to do. I have prayed and pretty much everything. I still desire to do these things. It is foolish how I continue to do these things. Scripture tells us to confess our sins to each other. Iron sharpens Iron. I just want someone to ask the tuff questions and not be surprised at the answers.

Comment by john 01.17.06 @ 4:56 pm

So marko, now that you have been informed as to the truth & reality of this incident, would you like to post some retractions & apologies?

Comment by Hugo 05.03.06 @ 5:44 pm

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