DAY 235

SIN & REPENTANCE

Psalm 110, 111 & 112 and 1 Corinthians 5

I had mentioned yesterday that Paul seemed more that a little annoyed. Today we come to the beginning of the issue. With echoes of the Psalms still in my ears, Blessed is the man who…greatly delights in his commandments, I read about people who are not greatly delighting in God’s commandments. I have pointed out before that God’s commandments are something we will want to try and keep, not to earn God’s love, but in response to His Love and in a belief that He knows the “right path.”

The Church in Corinth seems to think otherwise. “It is reported that there is sexual immorality among you…” Now I want us to really zero in on the issue. It is not so much that people are sinning (that of course is never a desirable situation) but it is rather that they are trying to say “it is ok.” Paul then is forced to actually describe the sin, so as to let them know that “he knows.” He does this all in the hope that when they read what they are doing they will stop. Because right now that are not stopping; quite the opposite…they are boasting!

The issue is their hearts, not only the sin. Do not misunderstand, the sin is wrong and I imagine people are being hurt: emotionally, physically and spiritually…that is what sin does, it damages and make no mistake, damage is being done. But to add insult to injury, those who are committing these acts are not only not sorry they have done them,  and they are not only boasting that they have done them…they are using their faith to justify their behavior! We might understand now while Paul is so upset and is being so strong in his point of view.

I really wanted to highlight the issue, it is that of attitude; in fancy religious language we would call those involved in this situation “unrepentant.” It is especially important today for two reasons.

First, the Church, or those speaking for the Church, have mis-communicated. We have somehow sent the message that sin is wrong, so wrong, that we must be perfect and anyone who is not is, well, somehow they are a really really bad person. People of course don’t like to be told they are bad. They do not like to be identified as sinners. They don’t like you pointing your finger at them. The result is that the Church has been characterized as a bunch of judgmental hypocrites. Why? Because people have mis-heard (and we have mis-spoken) the message as “be perfect, just like us church going folks.” Of course, church-going folks are not perfect and those we have been pointing at…they have noticed we sin…and worse, we don’t seem to acknowledge that we do. The result has been that the hypocrites have been called out and the Church has stopped talking about sin.

That is not the message of the Bible. The message of the Bible is that sin is real; we do it and in fact we do it too much. This leads to the second point: the point of the Bible. It is the point that to follow God is to live a life oriented away from sin. We can only do this by God’s grace, and WE WILL NOT BE PERFECT…we will sin. When we do (and we all do) we then need to stand up and say “I sinned” and “turn around” and walk back towards God. Repent means to literally “turn around.” It captures the issue, we in our journey of life for whatever reason, turn away from God. Maybe it was for a moment, but we did and we do. We need to say we are sorry, get up and get moving the right way.

In this Letter to the Corinthians we read that sin is approved of, so much so that they are boasting. We do the same. So just to be clear, I sin, all the time. I am impatient, judgmental, unloving, and more…I frequently have to ask God to forgive me, and I have to ask God to help me be less like that because I do not want to be that kind of a person. In fact the Scriptures say we are to “die daily to sin” which I take as a statement of the reality of life. If we in the Church communicated that message more, I think we might be on a better path, and find that others are joining us.