Through a series of events in the last week, which are far too much to get into now, I did a lot of thinking this last week on sin in general. How we put sin on a scale and compare ours to others. Though God does set different penalties for different sin, all sin keeps us from a relationship with God and all sin is absolutely detestable to him. It is so incredibly difficult to stay aware of our sins though, especially those we see as small and insignificant sins. How do you boil a frog? Slowly increase the temp so he doesn’t realize he’s about to boil to death. In the same way, the more we keep sinning, the more numb we will be to its affects and not know it is literally killing us.
I’m sure you’ve heard this Christian phrase, hate the sin love the sinner, but is that at all Biblical? Psalm 5:5 says God hates all who do evil. God tells Israel to wipe out entire nations who are extremely evil and do detestable acts such as sacrificing their own children. That does not sound so loving toward people as many expect from God. (That’s a topic for another day) As much as God hates sin and those who purposefully and remorsefully continue in their sin, it does not give us grounds to condemn and judge others for the sin in their life. I have seen and heard too many people speak harsh words toward others for their sin without knowing the whole story or the motives in their hearts. If you are one of those people who are very condemning on any sin, you are throwing some very damaging stones at people. Please remember Jesus words, “He who is without sin among you, let him be the first to throw a stone at her.”
We read Jesus saying this in John 8 when the religious leaders bring a woman caught in adultery before Jesus and say the law of Moses says we stone such a woman, what do you say. Keep in mind that this is not about the woman. It’s not about the sin. It’s about Jesus. John 8:6 says, “And they were saying this, testing Him, in order that they might have grounds for accusing Him. But Jesus stooped down, and with His finger wrote on the ground.”
As they continue to press Jesus for an answer, he stands up and says “He who is without sin cast the first stone”. John tells us the religious leaders begin to leave starting with the older ones first. Jesus then goes over to the woman and asks where they are, did no one condemn you? She says no one and then I love Jesus’ response here, “Neither do I condemn you; go your way. From now on sin no more.” Jesus does not accept her sin as OK, no sin is OK to God. But Jesus looks her in the eye and says I do not condemn you, in other words, you are forgiven.
As a Church, we need to provide a safe place and be safe people to talk about their sins and struggles in general. Somehow we have made church the one place we cannot talk about our own sin and struggles but instead are all the more careful to hide and cover them up. We cannot be judging or condemning because that job is God’s and his alone. We must be encouraging and loving and full of compassion toward others. I love that word compassion. In the Greek it has a stomach turning physical hurting idea along with it. When Jesus says he felt compassion, I believe it means that Jesus felt such compassion toward the individual that he felt it and hurt physically himself. We need to have that same mindset and attitude as Christ and strive to be more like him every day.