Bible Question:
Dear InMyHeart, Let's see if I understand you. Why did I ask a question (of others) and then never reply? I posed my original question because I was looking for the answer -- and still am. I wasn't just trying to provoke academic debate, although that too is useful and I'm not beyond doing that. Quite simply, if I could have usefully responded, I would have. I shall always try to limit my comments to well thought-out and considered contributions. It will never be my intent to treat this excellent study forum as merely another Internet chat room, and I shall try to refrain from commenting without believing that I'm making a worthwhile contibution. With regard to my original question, what I was really trying to do is find out how to best respond to those Christians who state that their Bible says something like, "No sin is greater than another (excluding unforgivable blasphemy)" or "All sins are of equal importance (gravity)." I believe that some very mature, knowledgable and faithful Christians, who generally fulfill God's will for their life, sometimes regularly and/or repeatedly commit the same sin (peculiar to the individual) and use such statements to mitigate the severity of such behavior. Let me pose some hypothetical examples: Is not a single act of murder a greater sin than repeated small acts of deception? Is not repeated fornication a greater sin than smoking cigarettes? How does one respond with specificity when a person says that their sin is no worse than any other specific sin? This is a real world ministering issue, not just an academic one. Further guidance from anyone would be greatly appreciated. Thank you, Henri |
Bible Answer: Henri, Thank you for responding, your reply was a blessing. When Moses came back down from the mountain and saw God's people worshipping the idol, he threw the tablets, because to break one law, was to break them all, James 2:10-11, also see verses below; Deuteronomy 9: 16, When I looked, I saw that you had sinned against the LORD your God; you had made for yourselves an idol cast in the shape of a calf. You had turned aside quickly from the way that the LORD had commanded you. 17, So I took the two tablets and threw them out of my hands, breaking them to pieces before your eyes. 18, Then once again I fell prostrate before the LORD for forty days and forty nights; I ate no bread and drank no water, because of all the sin you had committed, doing what was evil in the LORD's sight and so provoking him to anger. This is what you stated; "How does one respond with specificity when a person says that their sin is no worse than any other specific sin?" What seperates your relationship to God? Is it not sin? The penalty for sin in OT was death. Now that Jesus paid the penalty for our sin by the shedding of His blood, we have forgiveness through grace. Do we continue to sin? NO. We were not only made for God's Pleasure and formed for God's Family, but we were Created to Become Like Christ. As we fulfill God's will for our life, our purpose, God develops our character. Our focus is not on sin, but on becoming Christ-like. Phl 3:12 Not that I have already obtained it or have already become perfect, but I press on so that I may lay hold of that for which also I was laid hold of by Christ Jesus. Phl 3:13 Brethren, I do not regard myself as having laid hold of it yet; but one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and reaching forward to what lies ahead, Phl 3:14 I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. Phl 3:15 Let us therefore, as many as are perfect, have this attitude; and if in anything you have a different attitude, God will reveal that also to you; Phl 3:16 however, let us keep living by that same standard to which we have attained. NASB I pray that I hear from you soon, continue in the will of God, Ephesians 2:10. God bless |