For a little while now, I've been trying to up my game when it comes…
Love Won A Long Time Ago (Part 2)
Have you noticed that we, as Christians, seem to get more exorcised about sexual sin than a lot of other kinds of sin?
Looking at the culture today (and the trends of the culture in my lifetime, honestly), I have to say that generally speaking, whenever the “us vs. them” fights seem to spark, sexual sin seems to be right there in the mix.
Why is that?
I think, if you were to ask most Bible-believing Christians, if sins were weighted differently that all of them would at least parrot back the correct answer. No — all our sins are equal at the foot of the cross. And yet, we seem much more willing to love and forgive the gambler than the adulterer, or the liar over the homosexual.
This, my friends, needs to stop. Christ died for all of us – regardless of whatever particular sin we most struggle against. Maybe it’s a foul mouth. Maybe it’s porn. Maybe it’s that sense that you’re just a little better (or worse) than everyone else. The point is that sin is sin and every single sin required the nails in Jesus’ hands and feet. Equally.
So what is it about sexual sin that gets us so riled up? I think, perhaps, it’s because at some level we’ve internalized 1 Corinthians 6:19-20 “Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body.”
Sexual sin, then, feels like a desecration of the temple of the Holy Spirit — it’s like swearing in church, even if you don’t have a problem swearing with your friends on Friday night.
And yet, to God? They’re the same.
Sexual sin of any kind (premarital, extramarital, homosexual, lustful thoughts, etc.) is, to God, simply sin. We don’t need to run around, flailing our arms and screaming when we encounter it. Instead, we need to approach it the same way we’d approach our brothers and sisters when we catch them in a lie. Remind them of God’s love and Jesus’ sacrifice that affords them forgiveness for the asking. And then walk along side them as they work to strengthen their walk in such a way that they, like the Samaritan woman at the well, can go, and sin no more.
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The problem is not that homosexuaity is worse than any other sin but it’s that our government has made it legal legitimizing it. that’s like our government going out there and saying its okay to murder somebody or perform any acts like Isis is doing. our country is on the decline and it’s turning its back on God and His righteousness. If we just ignore it and condone it, any kind of sin we are not walking in His light we need to stand for righteousness not condone sin.
I don’t think anything I said disagrees with that – I’m certainly not supportive of having gay marriage legalized. They’ve already legalized murder in their abortion decision in 1973. There are plenty of sins out there that are legal according to our government. I definitely believe Christians should be politically active and fighting against laws that run contrary to the Bible. BUT, I also don’t think we do anyone service by getting tunnel vision about one particular sin, particularly if we’re unwilling to call out other sins of the same ilk. When was the last time your pastor refused to marry a couple who had been sexually active prior to the wedding? Let alone lived together? In my mind, we need to embrace – publicly and from the pulpit – a Biblical view of sex across the board that says, you know what? If you’re living together because you’re engaged, you’re sinning just as much as that same-sex couple next door to you. But as a body, the church has slowly accepted that “Oh, it’s unrealistic to expect singles to remain chaste.” Yet we run around up in arms about sinners behaving like sinners.
After I wrote my comment I thought about abortion and your right, my only fear is that if a church refuses to marry a homosexual couple the pastor could be jailed, and they’re already talking about taking away the tax exemption for the church. I believe we will see some rather frightening things happening to the church because this ruling. We are in the end times, and the church will be persecuted. As far as my pastor is concerned he has no problem speaking against sin of any kind, but his messages are always in love not judgement but he is not afraid to speak against sin.