I want to write a "thank you note" to all of you who have taken the time to read my ramblings, and so graciously commented on them. I am blessed and excited to be on this journey with each of you, and I cherish the freedom to share my ponderings along the way. I pray that each of you are somehow spurred by my questions, not to blindly agree with me but to seek out the answers for yourself. We must be encouraged to break out of the Mosaic mold of one man hearing God and all others relying on what he heard, to the New Kingdom Jesus brought to us by going away so that we could have constant fellowship through the Holy Spirit. He is our Teacher, and we are encouraged by our Lord to "be taught" by Him. I grieve that possibly the church setting as it has remained for so many years has limited our revelatory capacity. I do not believe it is the heart of a good pastor to share and expect the listeners to take his word as the final word. But in our laziness, and even busyness, I believe that is often the case.
OK. On to the subject of this post.....the subject of sin and what Jesus' said about it. Honestly, it is very surprising when one gets out a concordance and searches for the words of Jesus on the subject of sin....surprising in that there aren't very many.....words that is....regarding sin. Other than He said don't do it. But even that He didn't say very often. And interestingly enough, He said those words to people to whom He had first revealed Himself by a very loving act of compassion.
The Pharisees were always trying to point out sin and sinners to Jesus. He would always put them in their place by exposing their own sinfulness. In fact, what I found while searching out the matter is that Jesus used the word "sin" most often when referring to the religious leaders. Interesting, huh?
In the book of John, Jesus....while speaking of the Holy Spirit....tells them that He will convict us of sin. I did not find any commandments given by our Lord to us, to make sure we try to convict each other of sin. Instead, He told them to receive the Holy Spirit and then told them He would lead them into all truth, and also convict them of sin.
The few times that Jesus did mention sin to those people who did not know Him, He would always do so within an atmosphere of love. "There. I healed you. Now go and sin no more." More like a prescription for future health.
In all, I only found 10 uses of the word "sin" in the Gospels, all of them in different contexts, but none of them in Jesus' instructions to His disciples. Sin was not mentioned in the book of Mark, nor was it in Luke. John mentions it the most. Which causes me to wonder if sin was mentioned most by the writers who were most hung up on it?
What I did find Jesus commanding us to and focusing on is love. He simply said "Love God, love others." "Go and wait until you receive the Holy Spirit. You're gonna need Him to teach you and guide you into everything you need." He focused on relationship.
I believe that Jesus knew His purpose. He knew and understood that He came to show us a new way of life so that sin would no longer hold us in bondage. And He also knew that His greatest act of obedience, dying on the cross, would deal with sin's power once and for all. So why teach on it, be hung up on it, or feel the need to train us in how to point it out in others?
The enemy tempts us, finds our weakness.....and we succumb to him, act on it, and "sin". Then he immediately moves in on us with accusations (he is the accuser of the brethren) so he tempts us with sin, then says "Aha! Look at you! You did or are doing this and this! You horrible sinner!" So my concern is, how does our coming into agreement with the accuser help anyone? Whose side are we on, anyway?
But love......now that is an altogether different story. It has been my experience that we are way more proficient in pointing out sin, fearing sin, examining sin and talking about sin than we have been loving. I don't know about you, but I welcome a new focus. I say may we all be so hung up on love....on receiving God's love, on sharing testimonies of His love, being determined to make love our highest goal.....that the atmosphere around us changes....just as it did around Jesus.....that men would truly be drawn to us by our love. That they would no longer steer clear of us for fear we would expose their sins, but the power sin has over them would simply melt in the sweet atmosphere of love around us.
Instead of bearing signs of condemnation and pointing fingers at sin, may we lovingly point the sinner to the open arms of the One who dealt with it completely.
No comments:
Post a Comment