God's Lines or Our Lines
I think we, as Christians, spend a lot of time on talking about what is sinful and what isn’t. We like making those black and white distinctions because it gives us a comfort zone and a place where we can belong. Drawing those lines gives us a sense of identity. And, it is important that we look at the Bible and see where God drew those lines for us. The problem that I have noticed is that, I think, we draw lines where God didn’t draw them.
For example, in my last blog, we looked at dancing and how people make generalizations that dancing is a sin where the Bible never says it is, but rather is very complementary of it. Instead, what the Bible does condemn as sin is sexual immorality. So, God draws the line at sexual immorality where so many of us will draw it at dancing. We draw these lines for ourselves. Sometimes, we call this “hedging” and we do this so we don’t cross any of the lines God drew for us (“Well, if I don’t dance, I won’t be sexually immoral”).
I think that is great that people are so willing to not sin because they know God hates it that they don’t even want to get close to sinning. The problem, of course, arises when people start enforcing the lines they drew for themselves as God’s lines and on other people (“I think dancing can lead to sin, therefore, no one should dance” which will eventually turn into “dancing is sinful”).
This is what I’ve been thinking a lot about lately. I’ve been going back through what I believe and challenging myself to evaluate if something is sinful or not and really thinking about WHY it is sinful if it is.
I’ve spent a lot of time introducing this subject and I appreciate those of you who have and will stay with me through this. I just think it is important for you all to know where I am coming from and don’t just have too much time on my hands. Anyway, moving on.
It wasn’t until about a week ago that I realized that there was really only one sin. I had been studying and teaching the Minor Prophets when I noticed that the same thing kept coming up over and over and over again. The message of a lot of these prophets was that Jerusalem was going to be destroyed due to their unfaithfulness or their idolatry. Unfortunately, things didn’t click into place for me until I was reading Exodus 20, when I noticed that the first four commandments given to the Children of Israel were about putting God first and respecting Him and keeping Him on His Throne. That’s when I realized that there was really only one sin and that sin is idolatry. God drew His line at idolatry.
Idolatry is defined as putting anything other than God on His Throne. That can come in a number of different flavors. For instance, 1 John 2:16 speaks of three different flavors when it mentions “the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life.” Another way of saying that is “Lust, Greed, and Pride.” Lust is defined as putting your fleshly desires on God’s Throne. Greed is defined as putting your physical desires on God’s Throne. Pride is defined as putting yourself on God’s Throne. All three of those are putting something other than God on His Throne. Therefore, they are all sin.
Someone asked me recently if I thought some actions were inherently sinful. I told him no, but rather that the intent behind that action is what causes the sin. For example, murder is sinful for a number of different reasons: it devalues something God said was very valuable, valuable enough for Jesus to sacrifice Himself for; it’s taking something that doesn’t belong to you; it’s motivated by hate; it violates the perfect law of love Jesus taught about. Murder is motivated by pride if you stop and think about it. Telling God that He was wrong about all souls being precious or stealing or hating or violating God’s Law is extremely prideful. Murder could even be motivated by greed or lust. It just really depends on the person’s heart. That is where sin begins, in the heart. Jesus even said it in Matthew 5 where He teaches the people that if you hate your brother, you’re guilty of murdering him in your heart. With that said, I don’t think you can murder someone without those prerequisite sins, so, murder is always going to be sinful. However, like with our “dancing” example, there are a lot of actions that will or will not be sinful due to whatever the purpose or intent is of the person. In other words, what is in their heart will determine if something is sinful or not.
So, with that as the basis of my thinking, I have come to a few different conclusions as to what is sinful and what is not (dancing). I have, also, come to a lot of the same conclusions as to what is sinful (murder), but I have a better understanding of why it is sinful now. I think it is imperative that we all sit down and think about this and come to an understanding of what is sinful and what isn’t and why for either way. It’s going to take some effort, but we will be better equipped to serve God and others for it.
I think all of that made sense. If not, these were my points: 1, Don’t draw lines for God; 2, Idolatry is the only sin and it comes in different forms; and 3, The reason why you do something determines whether or not is sinful.
I hope this helps and, if not, I hope I did no harm.
May God bless you all.
~Carwile
For example, in my last blog, we looked at dancing and how people make generalizations that dancing is a sin where the Bible never says it is, but rather is very complementary of it. Instead, what the Bible does condemn as sin is sexual immorality. So, God draws the line at sexual immorality where so many of us will draw it at dancing. We draw these lines for ourselves. Sometimes, we call this “hedging” and we do this so we don’t cross any of the lines God drew for us (“Well, if I don’t dance, I won’t be sexually immoral”).
I think that is great that people are so willing to not sin because they know God hates it that they don’t even want to get close to sinning. The problem, of course, arises when people start enforcing the lines they drew for themselves as God’s lines and on other people (“I think dancing can lead to sin, therefore, no one should dance” which will eventually turn into “dancing is sinful”).
This is what I’ve been thinking a lot about lately. I’ve been going back through what I believe and challenging myself to evaluate if something is sinful or not and really thinking about WHY it is sinful if it is.
I’ve spent a lot of time introducing this subject and I appreciate those of you who have and will stay with me through this. I just think it is important for you all to know where I am coming from and don’t just have too much time on my hands. Anyway, moving on.
It wasn’t until about a week ago that I realized that there was really only one sin. I had been studying and teaching the Minor Prophets when I noticed that the same thing kept coming up over and over and over again. The message of a lot of these prophets was that Jerusalem was going to be destroyed due to their unfaithfulness or their idolatry. Unfortunately, things didn’t click into place for me until I was reading Exodus 20, when I noticed that the first four commandments given to the Children of Israel were about putting God first and respecting Him and keeping Him on His Throne. That’s when I realized that there was really only one sin and that sin is idolatry. God drew His line at idolatry.
Idolatry is defined as putting anything other than God on His Throne. That can come in a number of different flavors. For instance, 1 John 2:16 speaks of three different flavors when it mentions “the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life.” Another way of saying that is “Lust, Greed, and Pride.” Lust is defined as putting your fleshly desires on God’s Throne. Greed is defined as putting your physical desires on God’s Throne. Pride is defined as putting yourself on God’s Throne. All three of those are putting something other than God on His Throne. Therefore, they are all sin.
Someone asked me recently if I thought some actions were inherently sinful. I told him no, but rather that the intent behind that action is what causes the sin. For example, murder is sinful for a number of different reasons: it devalues something God said was very valuable, valuable enough for Jesus to sacrifice Himself for; it’s taking something that doesn’t belong to you; it’s motivated by hate; it violates the perfect law of love Jesus taught about. Murder is motivated by pride if you stop and think about it. Telling God that He was wrong about all souls being precious or stealing or hating or violating God’s Law is extremely prideful. Murder could even be motivated by greed or lust. It just really depends on the person’s heart. That is where sin begins, in the heart. Jesus even said it in Matthew 5 where He teaches the people that if you hate your brother, you’re guilty of murdering him in your heart. With that said, I don’t think you can murder someone without those prerequisite sins, so, murder is always going to be sinful. However, like with our “dancing” example, there are a lot of actions that will or will not be sinful due to whatever the purpose or intent is of the person. In other words, what is in their heart will determine if something is sinful or not.
So, with that as the basis of my thinking, I have come to a few different conclusions as to what is sinful and what is not (dancing). I have, also, come to a lot of the same conclusions as to what is sinful (murder), but I have a better understanding of why it is sinful now. I think it is imperative that we all sit down and think about this and come to an understanding of what is sinful and what isn’t and why for either way. It’s going to take some effort, but we will be better equipped to serve God and others for it.
I think all of that made sense. If not, these were my points: 1, Don’t draw lines for God; 2, Idolatry is the only sin and it comes in different forms; and 3, The reason why you do something determines whether or not is sinful.
I hope this helps and, if not, I hope I did no harm.
May God bless you all.
~Carwile
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You made a lot of great points. I firmly believe that we ought to be talking about the heart before we enter into any discussion on dancing, drinking, immodesty, gambling, etc. The problem, sometimes, is that people aren't content with that and they demand lines. These people are usually weak-minded Christians. At any rate, if the Bible draws a line or discusses specific issues, then so should we. For example, I believe that the Bible says more about lascivious dancing than you might think. Am I going to condemn all dancing? No. But I am going to say that lascivious dancing is wrong. But again, great points. I wish that it was this simple all the time. -
Here's a question to test your theory. This is only academic. Is manslaughter a sin or an accident? It doesn't fit your criteria of sin but it is a crime and breaking the laws of man is also a sin. Where do sins of ommission fall? In print I think this may sound like more of a challenge than it's meant. -
What is causing the manslaughter? If it is an accident due to your negligence(?), I don't see how that could be sinful unless you were just lazy and weren't doing your job. If it a result of something else, like being drunk, then I would have to say that it is just a consequence of another sin. -
As for sins of ommission, I would have to say that would be a pride issue. It's like saying that you don't really believe that God says what He means. I don't know. Maybe.
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I like this post. However, once again you made the point about motives determining the righteousness/sinfullness of an act. I think we can very definitively say that motives can make an action sinful. (Preaching can be sinful if it is done with prideful motives). But the flip side of that coin isn't true...motives cannot make an action righteous. To sin your can either 1)Actually do something that is WRONG (blaspheme) 2)You can do something with improper motives (drink in order to get drunk, therefore no longer being soberminded. But for an action to righteous the actual action itself has to be correct AND the motive has to be right. -
Hedges are one thing we do...but the slippery slope argument is REALLY popular too (I might have mentioned that before on here...). I have heard people argue that we shouldn't let women teach kindergarten kids because that might LEAD to other things, and pretty soon a woman will be teaching the auditorium class. Or years ago people argued that having a kitchen sink to wash communion trays and cups (when we still used glass) was a slippery slope that could easily having a full blown commercial kitchen, complete chicken dinners & ice cream socials. I believe that hedges are good for people, but only on a personal level. Forcing them on others is rather...shall we say Pharasaical (did I just make up a word?)?
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