Jacob’s Well: John 4
It strikes me that I, and probably most Christians I know, have a poor conception of exactly what Christ’s life and work were for. Not just “getting saved,” or getting forgiven of sin. But what Christ enabled us to do and focus on in everyday life. The husband and I were up until 1 a.m. last night discussing the difficulty Christians have responding to the issue of homosexuality–treating it like an extra bad sin, not being sure how to love a sinner of this particular kind, perhaps not even being sure we are allowed to love. We get hung up on sin. We feel compelled to make sure everyone knows its a sin-that everyone is agreed-and that change has to happen. We get caught up slicing and dicing the issue into more and less sinful, acceptable, remediable, and forgivable aspects. But I don’t think Jesus called us to expert sin labelers. We’re supposed to know sin when we see it and the gray areas of some moral issues can seem to grow and loom variously across human history. But the question remains, is the ability to discern and condemn sin the main task that Jesus’s life and work enabled us to accomplish?
I’m pretty bad at discerning the sin in my own life, and consequently, I’m bad at discerning it in the lives of others. There are the easy things, like porn, getting drunk, adultery. Those are the big no-no’s, and big if for no other reason than they entail lots of readily recognizable behaviors and consequences. If you are having sex with your neighbor’s wife, you’re engaging in adultery. But what about the little sins–little because they aren’t as tangible or concrete. Maybe not as discernable in our behavior and outward life. Pride, compulsive worrying, self-absorption, laziness, unwillingness to meet life’s challenges, self-pity, narcissism, resentment, jealousy, untrustworthiness, abuse, workaholism, sanctimonious piety, and self-satisfaction. Ugly litte sins that secrete themselves about one’s life and relationships. No one behavior looks like pride. It’s more easily discerned as a lifestyle–a long history of approaching the world in a habitual way, often learned with the help of a certain family and certain life circumstances. We all possess these little sins in abundance. And they can’t be treated by adhering to a list of simple Do’s and Don’ts. Fact it, some sin simply isn’t amenable to our human efforts to uproot it. We’re calling God a liar if we think a little focus and a little will power is sufficient to remove our sin.
So sin is bad and we’ve all got it. We’re going to have it until after we die. There is no perfection in this lifetime. Please see earlier posts if you’d like my argument against Jesus’ life and resurrection being solely or even primarily an example of and call to perfection. But what is the alternative to perfectionistic sin finding and condemning? The alternative God selected was love. A willingness to come to us, to spend time with us, to get to know us and let us get to know him. There’s no aspect of human nature he hasn’t witnessed first hand and he still loves us.
Consider Jesus’ visit with the woman at the well. He offerred her companionship, acceptance (he was talking to a social outcast), eternal life, and the freedom to worship Yahweh. After Jesus visited with the woman at the well, she went in amazement to her friends saying, “He told me everything I ever did.” Jesus took the time to know her, and to sit and drink water with her. Christians don’t have the power to mysteriously know all about others, but we do have the ability to listen to others’ stories. And when people feel heard and known, they feel the way Jesus’ friend at the well did, and it changed her life.
So let’s be balanced. Let’s spend at least as much time learning to love and listen and know as we do learning to discern and deal with sin. Jesus was good at the latter, but renowned for the former.
January 17th, 2006 at 1:30 am
that’s interesting, Kevin and I were just talking about that same thing yesterday after church. I agree completely. unlike Richard Harbaugh, the holy spirit did not give me the spiritual gift of judgment. it is my job to love, not condemn.
January 17th, 2006 at 8:07 am
I’ll make two points. First one on homosexuality…I agree that sin is no different than the sins that I’ve made. I am just as fallen and in need of a savior as any gay guy. This shouldn’t be something the church has to debate at all, it seems so obvious. Unfortunately there are some that do treat it on par with being the devil himself, and secular society has enjoyed painting all Christians as gay-haters. I think realistically speaking, if a gay person came to church loving Jesus, but struggling with homosexuality, the church would welcome them with open arms (but that is rarely the case). It’s the church hating, don’t need Jesus gay person that we don’t know how to love. It’s a tough subject that’s for sure.
The rest of your piece goes along with the idea that God isn’t keeping a scorecard everytime we sin. Jesus came to have a relationship with us, and while taking on our sin at the cross was needed, it’s really only a piece of the puzzle. To get caught up on that aspect of Christ’s life clouds the big picture. The relationship and love of God is paramount above all things, and instructions for right living (ie. don’t do this sin, don’t do that sin) are not a mean to an end.
Good discussion sis.
January 17th, 2006 at 8:35 am
I’m guilty of ranking sins… as if there are some sections of hell that are better or worse. Riverfront, volcano view, private cave. Judgement itself may be our biggest (and least mentioned) sin. Wait, there is no “biggest.” Let’s call it “most common.” I’m a serial judger, but I have learned the benefits of not doing it. I have two good friends, one from high school and one from the military, that have turned to homosexual lifestyles. I hope that doesn’t mean that’s the affect I have on women! When both of them (Kathy and Jen if you have room in your prayers), came to me with their decision (separately. they don’t know each other), they were both blown away by my non-reaction. They know I am a Christian, and I think they expected the hellfire and brimstone speech. So many people turned them away and turned away from them, that it came to be what the expected. As Christians, it is NOT our place to judge, but to continue to be a part of their lives, knowing that God will present an opportunity to address the issue. Friendship is exactly what they need from us.
Yet, it is funny how I still struggle with judgement… and it’s for the little everyday things… what WE consider little, anyway.
January 17th, 2006 at 12:11 pm
I think the bigger question is: Would Jesus have an Ipod and if so what would he be listening to?
January 17th, 2006 at 12:19 pm
Jesus listens to U2… end of discussion.
January 17th, 2006 at 6:13 pm
Well, I agree with what everyone has said, pretty much. Except maybe for the bigger question being what Jesus would listen to if He had an Ipod.
I don’t consider myself overly judgemental. Some might disagree (“..and what do you think about people who serve canned cranberries?”). But I always wonder if there is ever the potential to err in the opposite direction. I mean, is there a point when not addressing obvious sin (I don’t have any particular obvious sin in mind) makes a group of believers (no particular group) look like hypocrites for supposedly accepting scripture as God’s word, but not living any differently than unbelievers? However, if we do love like Jesus loves, non-believers will definitely notice a difference. And I think it’s nearly impossible to love like that if one’s relationship with Christ is compromised by willful sin. Maybe the key word is willful. So, I guess maybe the love part automatically takes care of the potential poor example part. It could be confusing to onlooking unbelievers….but hopefully there is someone they know who will love them enough to help them figure it out. It definitely takes God working with us, and in us, to love people in our lives who aren’t all that easy to love. And sometimes they aren’t the ones with the obvious ‘big’ sins.
January 17th, 2006 at 8:18 pm
First, my favorite hell real estate has got the be the fetid pit.
Second, God listens to Bob Dylan.
Third, as we all know, people who serve canned cranberries don’t really love their families. (Just kidding-It took me a while to remember about the cranberry thing, but that was pretty funny).
Lastly (at least for now), just as I find myself dubious about the difference between big and little sins, so I find myself largely unable to differentiate between willful sins and…unwilled sins? Perhaps this is my psychology talking, but It’s my belief that we don’t know ourselves as well as we think, meaning we have neither so much nor so little control over our own behavior as we think (please see earlier discussion on free will and determinism–I’m somewhere in the middle). I can’t think of any sins of mine that weren’t willful, in the sense that they involved, at some point, my taking action, either in thought or deed. And yet I also typically feel that sin has a way of catching me unaware, with its own volition and agenda. Heck, sometimes I act with every good intention only to find what I’ve done in the end is wrong. I guess I’m arguing that no sin is ever totally one or the other, willful or unwilled, especially when we look at how deeply and historically rooted some of the pains and experiences which lead to sin can be.
PS-Amy, I’m glad you don’t have the gift of judgment. Maybe you should create a new comic spiritual gifts inventory including gifts such as backsliding, grumbling, useless theologizing, and acoustic paneling.
January 17th, 2006 at 8:32 pm
Also, my entire opinion could likely be explained by my predilection for the following verses: Romans 7:14-25:
14We know that the law is spiritual; but I am unspiritual, sold as a slave to sin. 15I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do. 16And if I do what I do not want to do, I agree that the law is good. 17As it is, it is no longer I myself who do it, but it is sin living in me. 18I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature.[c] For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. 19For what I do is not the good I want to do; no, the evil I do not want to do—this I keep on doing. 20Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it.
21So I find this law at work: When I want to do good, evil is right there with me. 22For in my inner being I delight in God’s law; 23but I see another law at work in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within my members. 24What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death? 25Thanks be to God—through Jesus Christ our Lord!
So then, I myself in my mind am a slave to God’s law, but in the sinful nature a slave to the law of sin.
January 17th, 2006 at 9:43 pm
Yep, that passage speaks to all of us, for sure. But it describes one who WANTS to do what he or she knows to be God’s will, in spite of failing to do it. Let me play the ‘devil’s advocate’ here just a little. How about when one knows, without a doubt, what God says His will is about something, but basically takes the position, “I don’t care, I’m gonna do (fill in the blank) anyway? Or how about trying to explain it away, as in, “surely God doesn’t mean (fill in the blank)…that can’t possibly apply to MY situation.” ?
January 18th, 2006 at 11:49 am
my Christian Worldview teacher a few semesters ago said that there is a difference in sin. he said that all sins are equal in that all sins separate from God, but all sins are not equal based on (this is the part where i will probably butcher the good point he was making) some sins do more damage than others, to us as individuals, to any other people affected, or to society/humanity. God’s law in the old testament even judges some sins as worse than others. You can tell that by the punishment required by law for the sins. Some sins’ penalty is death, some sins deserve less. and yeah, all sin requires a payment of life like it says in Romans, and therefore all sin is equal spiritually. but i can still see how all sins are not equal physically, based on the effect they have. still doesn’t give me the gift of judgement, and doesn’t make any sin more, or less acceptable. but it’s just something to think about i guess.
January 18th, 2006 at 1:16 pm
Good point Amy. If we followed the logic that all sin is equal in all respects, the importance of spirtual maturity would be rendered moot. There is a reason that murder seems like a worse sin than leaving a chintzy tip..because murder IS worse. This same reasoning is used when electing/hiring people to positions of leadership. The question is not “are you free from sin,” but instead “how free from sin are you?”
I think this is why it is so difficult to hire an openly gay Pastor to lead a church. Are they in need of the same saving grace as everyone else? Yes. Are they as free from sin as we expect a person in that position to be? Probably not.
January 18th, 2006 at 1:58 pm
And, as with the argument Judy raised, those whom I’ve met who do take a “Scripture doesn’t say homosexuality is wrong/the verses that say its wrong don’t apply to me” often make the point that homosexuality does less harm to most than other sins. I.e. they argue that if two consenting adults wish to set up a monogamous, commited homosexual relationship, this is better than adulterous hetero relationships and better than promiscuous homosexual relationships. This has been a difficult argument for me to cope with, not on a theological level, but a practical one. What do you tell a homosexual church member? Chastity for life? Maybe I just feel bad requiring that of others when I know I could probably never do it.
January 18th, 2006 at 3:32 pm
Chastity for life. Tall order, but no taller than telling somebody born without sight that they are blind for life and have to deal with it. I raise the issue of homosexuality being a decision or a born trait. I think there are cases for both, but is either situation a justification for living that lifestyle and expecting God to be OK with it? We are all born with some degree of less than desirable traits, but we live with it, or try to. I’m colorblind, but it’s not marked on my driver’s license that I get to run red lights with no consequences. ARE some people dealt a hand that justifies going against the Bible? Personally, I don’t think so, but I do think there are some hands that are harder to play with. With that in mind, we have to help those people with a caring heart, not condemn them with a an iron fist. But where do we draw the line? Are we helping them in the eyes of God by allowing gay marriage? Or Homosexual Pastors?
I’m excited for the youth retreat I’m going on next month. One of the speakers is from His Way Out Ministries and will be speaking on overcoming that lifestyle and now living a life pleasing to God. I’m interested to hear if he still considers himself a homosexual, but “non-practicing” or if he believes he is completely changed.
Sorry, that was all a bunch of ramble.
January 18th, 2006 at 8:56 pm
I think the part I really cue in on is how to help with a caring heart–practically speaking, how do we do it–and how do I begin to take seriously my own need for change and obedience. I also wonder how can we create a church community full of people who treat it as normal and necessary to share their struggles and sins with one another and to receive input/criticism/support from one another. This as opposed to a community in which everyone tries to look as holy and perfect to as many as possible. How does that change happen?