"Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like unto it thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.” [1]
Calling Sin A Sin
Let’s define a few terms here:
Sin: miss the mark, err [2]
Mark: a goal [3]
Perfect: being entirely without fault or defect, satisfying all requirements [4]
As Christians, how should we respond when a fellow believer confesses her sin to us? We should definitely speak the truth about the matter, yet do so in love. We are exhorted to "confess our faults one to another, and pray for one another that ye may be healed…” [5]Talking to someone about their sin is embarrassing and uncomfortable, yet if we can’t help each other when we have missed the mark, who will help us? Call sin what it is – sin, then it’s time to move on to forgiveness, repentance and restoration.
There is no ranking system of sin. Murder does not outrank lying, stealing does not outrank complaining and fornication does not outrank not walking in love. The problem that many people face is the ostracism and mean spiritedness they encounter when they actually share their mistakes with someone. When someone is involved in sin, we shouldn’t pour salt into the wound with our mouths and actions, but rather lovingly rebuke, reprove and pray for them to bring them back into the will of God for their lives. Simply put, show compassion. When Jesus died for our sins on the cross, it was for our past, present and future sins, because frankly, we’re all going to make mistakes. The good news is, we are the righteousness of God, we are not sinners (those who habitually practice sin), but redeemed by grace and have the right to call out to our God for forgiveness and He faithfully, always forgives us. [6]
"And this commandment have we form Him, that he who loveth God love his brother also.”[7]
Known by Love
What does the Body of Christ demonstrate to the world? Is it love, or bitter backbiting, finger pointing, judgment ridden hypocrisy? Are we attacking our own body or being the balm that heals? Jesus said they would know us by the love we have one to another. [8] However, sin seems to have been universally adopted by the Body as the acceptable occasion to not show love towards one another. That should not be so. We should share the love that God has poured inside of us [9]and bring our brethren home. We don’t minimize or trivialize sin, but only God has the power to forgive us. And if God forgives all sin, who are we as His children to hold others (or even ourselves) to a higher standard than what He has set?
Build Up, Not Tear Down
"But speaking the truth in love, may grow up into Him in all things, which is the head, even Christ: from whom the whole body fitly joined together and compacted by that which every joint supplieth, according to the effectual working in the measure of every part, maketh increase of the body unto the edifying of itself in love.”[10]
As believers, we are to live by the standards God has set in His Word. A Christian is not perfect but rather being perfected, it is a process. Because it is a process, we are apt to make many mistakes along the way. Sin is when you miss the mark and the mark is God’s will as described in His Word. What if every sin committed received just punishment [11]instead of the mercy, grace and compassion of God, where would you be?
Before you cast that stone, pick the mote out of your own eye, [12]repent and then help your sister to her feet.
[1]Matthew 22:37-39
[2]The New Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible
[3]The New Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible
[4]Merriam Webster Online Dictionary
[5]James 5:16
[6]1 John 1:9
[7]1 John 4:21
[8]John 13:35
[9]Romans 5:5
[10]Ephesians 4:15-16
[11]Hebrews 2:2
[12]John 8:7, Matthew 7:4
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