Black Squirrel
I had not seen one in a very long time.
Its color blurring its form and figure
the most undefined of silhouettes
the only shadow on a cloudy day
a smoky cloud of fur trailed by
the swishing tail of black flame
gliding through the grass
weaving through the bamboo stalks
darting along the low wooden fence.
In its dérive it leaps into the lilac tree.
The mauve flowers are bright in the overcast palette
and the boughs are wet and black from morning rain
limbs hanging loosely with full blossoms
weighted with the water and the matured petals
the aura of the violet snowflakes in the still afternoon
subdued vibrancy suspended in the courses of nature.
It lands in the cosmic clouds of the lilac
and its features focus to show clearly the legs and paws
the lithe body long deft tail and the unmistakably squirrel head
all brought into clarity within the purple petals
balancing on the dark and crooked branch.
The inscrutable mystery of an obvious outlier
in a moment was made so clear in the midst
of a complementary beauty.
Crossing through the stillness of the gray landscape
into brighter arms no less welcoming.
Very noticeable.
And totally at home.
L.I.T.W. – Race
The third installment of “Love is the Why” features the next great issue that American Christians must meet with love – or fuel with inaction.
Christians be like….
Most Christians are not racists.
Which is, of course, a very good thing, considering that few things are so diametrically opposed to the Gospel as racism.
But there are some racist “Christians.” And some “Christians” who use Christianity to justify racism.
And many Christians are racenorant (too ignorant to be just racist, too racist to be just ignorant). And just about every single Christian (including this writer) suffers from some degree of subconscious racism.
American Christians live in a nation that is racist. And racial tensions are as high as they have been in some time. The last 300 days have seen the rise of a powerful movement of protesters that has especially focused on police brutality against black Americans. Their efforts have shed light on systemic injustices that go well beyond the guns of the police.
Race will be one of the most important issues in America in 2015 and beyond. And my heart longs for my generation be the one to finally be the change I wish to see.
American Christians are a part of this struggle. How will we acquit ourselves?
Because, so far, our participation in this issue has been pitiful. And unless we act, the 21st Century Church of AC will stand next to slaveholders and the KKK in a tradition of Christians that chose which people counted as their neighbor.
This topic, like gay marriage, is worth considerably more than a couple thousand words. Again I find myself needing to narrow the scope of my writing in order to take on something a little more manageable. In just the first 250 words of this post I have already set off numerous alarm bells and made many statements that might need clarification or justification.
First thing’s first: this Scandinavian-American perspective will comment on white American Christians and their place in this issue. Obviously black American Christians can also be racist and can also fail to live out the Gospel in race relations, but it’s not quite the same. I hope I don’t have to explain this any further.
Second, we can’t dwell on the history for now. It’s just important that you understand that, while the Christian message is unequivocally anti-racism, Christianity has in its history had some pretty big racial issues. Your idea of Christianity’s place in history might be just a tad misguided (for instance, John Newton didn’t give up slaving right after his conversion. Yikes.).
And, lastly, it’s important to understand that this is, in fact, a big deal/problem/thing/issue.
And it’s because many white American Christians either refuse to believe this is a problem or ignore the problem altogether that brings us to our place in this discussion.
Christians facing this issue have tended to use five different responses:
- “This is just a bunch of media fodder. There’s not really a problem to worry about.”
- “There’s a good explanation for all this.”
- “Those people have problems.”
- “Christ is the answer.”
- “My brothers, sisters, and neighbors are crying out in pain and I must listen and act.”
The fifth option is the only acceptable response. Walk with me here.
“There’s not really a problem….”
This the response in which the Christian avoids showing love by denying that an object in need of love even exists. The person who ignores this issue and pretends racism doesn’t exist somehow manages to be blithely ignorant of their surroundings. Or, they truly do live in a bubble that appears free of racial tension, and when some tension is introduced to that bubble, they react by playing it off as a non-issue. Because this is the most ignorant of the four responses, it is hard to call this type of response un-loving. But it is self-absorbed. I believe Christians should constantly have their ear to the ground. While we are supposed to have our beliefs and convictions, some of which we would gladly die for, we should also be always listening and considering the views of others. For an individual to think that their view of the Gospel, the Bible, God, and the rest of the world is the immaculately correct view is all sorts of obtuse. Christians should always be listening for voices that sound different from theirs, while also seeking close community with people echoing what they believe to be true. So, as a Christian, if you hear a black person saying “I’m being oppressed because of my skin color” or “The police are unfairly targeting me,” shouldn’t you take some time to listen and consider? Might there be a problem even if you hadn’t ever given it much thought?
“There’s a good explanation….”
It seems to me that white Christians are quick to explain away or justify racial injustices, perhaps especially when it comes to police brutality. Where is the love in rushing to the side of the people holding the power and the badges and the guns? How is it loving to use mental gymnastics to explain why the young unarmed black man lying dead on the street was in the wrong? Why does a crime make someone deserving of death? I wonder: if Jesus was walking through a park in Cleveland and saw Tamir Rice dying on the ground, what would he have done? I can’t speculate, but I don’t think he would have brought up how much the toy gun looked like a real one. I think he might have John 11:35’d.
“Those people have problems….”
This is the most unloving response that Christians seem ready to use. This line of thinking attributes the Baltimore Uprising to misguided anger, exploitative thuggery, moral depravity, cultural deficiencies, and urban brokenness. Essentially it seeks to bring up all the problems in the black community, and it uses those problems to mask the issues that protesters are bringing to light. Christians should have open hearts and minds. Rather than criticizing a black person for smashing a window, why don’t we ask what could have possibly made that person so mad in the first place? We can try to understand these things without condoning them. What is the Christian response? “Shame on those people. How dare they break the law.” Or “Those people are hurting and I don’t understand why they’re doing this but I want someone to help them.” Rather than creating this figure of the poor, uneducated, hip-hopping, drug-dealing, angry black person, why don’t we ask “What has made them so upset?” Why do we rush to the side of those in power? Why don’t we sympathize with the protesters?
“Christ is the answer….”
Yes. Of course Christ is the answer. I believe that with all my heart. But what does that look like? What do Christians think will be accomplished by only speaking the Gospel? I believe in the power of the Gospel, and I believe as Paul writes that the Gospel is to be proclaimed first and foremost, and I echo Lecrae’s sentiment “Lord kill me if I don’t preach the Gospel.” But since when does sitting around shouting “Jesus saves” solve anything? I am not, for a moment, minimizing the power of the Gospel and the Holy Spirit. I’m maximizing the ability of God to work through Christians who go forth and live out the Gospel in their actions as they preach it. The Gospel has equipped us to join in issues of social injustice with hearts full of love as we live to glorify the name of above all names. Sitting at home and in our segregated churches is not what preaching the Gospel is about. What is masked in this response is a desire to just keep things the way they are and avoid controversy. Where in Jesus’ ministry did he avoid controversy? And, if we are to keep things the same, how is that going to do anything but just make the issue worse? And, finally, being angry is not sinful. We as Christians should get angry when we see injustice. Not rageful or hateful, and our anger should not drive us to sin, but it is okay for injustice to make us angry.
“My brothers, sisters, and neighbors are crying out in pain and I must listen and act….”
“He has told you, O man, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?” Micah 6:8
“We are not to simply bandage the wounds of victims beneath the wheels of injustice, we are to drive a spoke into the wheel itself.” Dietrich Bonhoeffer
If you are a Christian, you should be listening for the cries of the oppressed. And when you hear those cries, you should act. Perhaps this means acting against the government. Maybe it means causing a stir or creating controversy.
If you don’t think there is a race problem in America, you are tragically mistaken either as a result of colossal unawareness or close-minded unkindness. And if you recognize that there is a problem but decide to explain it away when it is inconvenient or just ostrich the situation altogether, then you are not acting in a loving manner.
To my brothers and sisters in Christ: please, please, make racial relations a priority in your life. Get educated in the history of black America. Seek out black perspectives. Become aware of your own racism. See the media’s racial bias. Recognize white privilege. And love. Not just those black people who wake up on a Sunday morning to get dressed up for church, but the ones marching and holding signs and even the ones who smash windows, run from the police, steal, or reach for the officer’s weapon. The Gospel message is so fundamentally opposed to everything racism stands for, and when we refuse to act against racism on the personal and systemic level, evil prospers. And to explain away or ignore an issue when fellow Christians of darker skin speak out is the type of self-centered Christianity that destroys church communities. If a Christian won’t try to believe a fellow Christian about an issue like this, there is something quite wrong.
The battle to defeat racism in America is intensifying and it will endure. No justice no peace. The movement lives. It will continue and, Lord willing, it will one day be resolved. If AC lives out the Gospel, and bears in mind the words of Micah 6:8 and Dietrich Bonhoeffer while trying to follow Christ’s example, Christians will naturally end up at the front of the charge that brings this reign of fear and hatred to an end.
But if AC continues in its current course, others will take our nation to a more progressive and humane condition while Christians waste time chasing other issues. Christians will have failed, but at least the racial situation will be better.
Or maybe the issue won’t get better. Maybe it needs Christians to heal racial wounds and bridge racial gaps with the love of the Gospel. And maybe, when white Christians are needed to step up, they will be nowhere to be found.
Just as Nero fiddled while Rome burned, perhaps Christians will carry on singing Chris Tomlin songs as the body of Black America hangs smoldering on a liberty tree.
Soli Deo Gloria
– Peter
Darth Blatter
As briefly as possible, what’s just insane about FIFA.
FIFA and its surrounding scandals push the limits of hyperbole.
You can’t make this stuff up.
José Hawilla forfeited $151 million dollars, 25 million of which he had already been paid. Paul Allen could walk into the Seahawks locker room with 500 pounds of PEDs, call Roger Goodell ten different gay slurs, and give every official a new car and not get fined that much.
When we’re talking about money of that magnitude, and about the world’s most popular sport, and about unbelievably powerful people, sense and reason dissipate.
We’re talking about the people who control the Beautiful Game and use corrupt bargains to place the world’s biggest international tournament in Sochi (and the Olympics showed us what a bad idea that is) and Qatar (where it’s so hot the tournament can’t be played in the summer). The World Cup’s 2018 and 2022 locations are so bad we’ll forget about burdening the nation of Brazil with it in 2014, when the world’s most soccer-addicted country protested against holding it’s biggest tournament, and where they built a new stadium in the rainforest to hold just a handful of games.
And what makes it all that much more mind-bending is that everyone knew this was all going on. Everyone just accepted that FIFA, the governing body of the world’s most important sport, was one of the most corrupt organizations in the world. And the guy that kept getting re-elected to lead this organization, Sepp Blatter, was known by all to be the cartoon villain at the head of this evil league of international gentlemen.
Just imagine if someone learned, in one day, everything about soccer, and then was told about the corruption of FIFA and Sepp Blatter. They would, with great urgency, call someone in power to let them know what they discovered, or at least to find out what was being done about Blatter. That poor person would promptly receive a shrug of the shoulders. If we translated this into Star Wars, I think it would work like a slightly edited version of that part in Revenge of the Sith where Anakin tells Mace Windu he thinks Palpatine is a Sith Lord and Mace incredulously replies, “A Sith Lord? Are you sure?”
Anakin Skywalker: I think Chancellor Palpatine is a Sith Lord.
Mace Windu: No duh Anakin. Everyone knows that.
Anakin: What? The Council knows?
Windu: Yeah the Council knows. The Senate knows. Padmé knows. Watto knows. Jar Jar knows. Literally everyone but you knows that Palpatine is a Sith Lord.
Anakin: Then why hasn’t anyone done something?
Windu: Well we can’t really prove it.
Anakin: But you know?
Windu: Yeah. I mean it was a little strange that a senator from the New Zealand of the galaxy took over after a suspect vote of no confidence in Valorum’s leadership all while his nation was getting bullied by the Trade Federation’s Roger-Roger and Hammerstein. And that the bureaucrats who ran the show stayed around after he was in office. And that an indigenous screw-up who ruined the first film for half the audience convinced the Senate, a notoriously slow-acting group, to quickly grant emergency powers to Palpatine. And that the Separatists managed to put up a good fight against the Republic, despite us having better soldiers, weapons, equipment, and telekinetic, future-seeing ninjas as generals.
Anakin: Yeah, now that you mention it, I’m not really sure how he knew Padmé was in trouble. And he knew a lot about this mysterious Sith Lord named Plagueis. Are you going to do something about it now?
Windu: I guess. I’ll go confront him with Kit Fisto, Saesee Tiin, and Eeth Koth.
Anakin: And you’re sure they won’t get killed like punks when Palpatine uses the most basic saber moves imaginable, leaving you to fight a Sith Lord on your own? You’re sure you shouldn’t wait for someone else to come help?
Windu: Nah. Ride or die, Anakin.
We all know this is a big deal. A really big deal. And somehow, we’ve all just learned to accept it.
And let’s not make any mistakes about how important Blatter’s position is. Despite the fact that this video exists, Blatter and his position are no laughing matter. Anything that someone named Prince Ali runs for can’t be something to sneeze at. Yeah I know there are a lot of princes out there, but when you have a royal title in front of your name, you’re a big deal. And you could probably do all sorts of awesome stuff without having to deal with the headache of running a global sports body of governance. And yet, someone named Prince Ali was the leading contender to take Blatter’s position from him.
Like I said, you can’t make this stuff up.
What most interests me now is seeing what changes in the wake of these findings and further investigations, and with someone other than Blatter heading up the Galactic Empire. And we have reason to believe that there may be grounds for change, as Blatter’s resignation is not without reason. Obviously he knew he was corrupt all along, so why would he wait until after winning re-election to resign? There must have been some sort of legal finding that meant certain doom for him, which could mean that investigators are onto something big. But questions about where this will go still remain.
First and foremost, will things change at all?
I’m hesitant to speculate, but I’d have to say I don’t think so. I think corruption kind of comes with the global sports territory. This corruption is so massive and thorough that I find it hard to think that things will change anytime soon. As much as I’d love to believe that something can be worked out to move the World Cup from Qatar, and as much as I’d like to think that a new regime could end corruption, pick good places for the tournament, and continue to address the many issues that face soccer and the places where it is played, I kind of think business will go on as usual. And I think that mostly because the world loves soccer so much that no organization can make them stop. People will play and watch soccer no matter which Dark Jedi run the show.
I also want to know what this will mean for American sports fans and the growth of soccer in America. It’s obvious that this issue isn’t taking the place of importance that it maybe should in America. Just think if these kinds of things were happening in the NFL. Actually stop thinking about it, because it’s incomprehensible. As it is, we think Roger Goodell is evil. Papi calls him Fidel Goodell. We don’t like him, mostly because we just think he’s bad at his job. Can you imagine if he was heading up something that was corrupt in the line of 10 figures and violated human rights on a level above domestic violence? Americans have done a remarkable job of going on unaffected by these findings, and I don’t know if that says more about how much progress soccer still has to make or how much these finding don’t ultimately matter to the rest of the world. It’s possible that American’s still don’t really care about soccer, but it’s also possible that the world is really that immune to the evil of FIFA.
Maybe all of this is the beginning of the end for corruption in soccer. Maybe it’s all a blip on the radar. Maybe it will affect American soccer and maybe it won’t. I don’t know how big a deal this really is. Maybe in five years we will see this as the definitive moment in a great change in world football, and maybe we’ll have forgotten about it. I’m interested to see.
What I do know is that there are over a thousand people dead right now as a result of trying to build stadiums in the desert of Qatar. And there are millions of dollars in the pockets of FIFA officials as a result of putting the tournament there.
And that, my friends, is the work of the Dark Side.
Soli Deo Gloria
– Peter
L.I.T.W. – Sinning
In the wake of the findings of the Pew Research Center, I’ve been compelled to share my heart on some of the shortcomings of American Christianity (AC). This is the first installment in a series called “Love is the Why.” For more information on this series, see the previous article. This topic, sinning, should work well to set the stage for some of the future posts, as a misunderstanding of sin and sinning is at the root of many of AC’s failings.
Luke 18:9-14
One of the most important traits of religion is the renunciation of evil ways. In just about any religion you will find adherents instructed in “good” things to do and “bad” things not to do. Oftentimes these rules are really just a codification of what humans, for the most part, accept as good and bad behavior.
Christianity works in a similar way. Part of becoming a Christian involves repenting of evil, and going forward a follower of Christ is expected to do some things and not do other things. This creates a language of “sin” and “not sin,” and considering that according to the Christian tradition sin is a pretty big deal and the penalty for sin is death, it makes sense that Christians would be concerned with whether or not they are being sinful.
However, non-Christians have come to see this lifestyle and worldview in a fairly negative light. Stressing over sin has made Christians appear as socially irrelevant, uninteresting, goody two shoe, self-righteous, legalistic, holier-than-thou rule followers. Of course, the Christian life is supposed to look strange – in some respects – to the rest of the world, but much of this condition does not have to be so. Christians have distorted the idea of sin and sinning in a way so as to not only impede their own spiritual growth, but to give fuel to anti-Christian fires. By splitting hairs over legalistic rulings over what is sin and what is not sin, Christians have not only distorted their own goals but alienated non-believers.
I’ll get into the specifics of how this works out later, but first it’s important to outline what I believe to be the important misunderstanding that leads to this issue.
Sin is not so much something you do as it is something you are.
I’m just now realizing that I’m going to spend only a couple hundred words explaining the doctrine of sin, which has taken up innumerable pages of work by Christian thinkers. I’ll give you the ground rules that will help us move forward and you can do more research on your own if you’re so inclined (I’m open to being wrong).
Sin is separation from God. God is perfect, people are not, and therefore we are separated from our creator. In our imperfection we dishonor God through our actions, and this puts us at odds with God. In fact, we are bound to be punished through death and eternal separation from God. In order to save us from this fate, God came in the form of a man (Jesus) and died to pay the penalty for our transgressions, and then he rose from the grave to conquer death. By accepting Jesus as lord and savior, a Christian turns from their sin and gives their life over to God.
Okay so where does sin work into this picture?
The important thing to see here is that before accepting Christ, human beings live on their default setting, which is sin. This means we do bad things and we keep doing bad things (and yes I know the “good” and “bad” thing is really big issue, and I will be writing about this in the next couple weeks. Bear with me for now). After accepting Christ, the new Christian now becomes able, through the power of the Holy Spirit, to not be in sin. Every Christian still does bad things, but they are no longer under the dominion of sin and are able to experience spiritual freedom in Christ.
Okay, that’s a lot of theology in two paragraphs. But hopefully you see a little more clearly what I mean by sin being something you are and not something you do, and it’s a lifestyle more than it is an action.
This is why, if you look at Paul’s letters in the Bible, when he refers to someone as being sinful or in the wrong, it generally refers to someone who is living in sin, not living and committing sins. Paul writes that he continues to do the things he does not want to do instead of doing the things he wants to do (Romans 7:15). Christians go on sinning even after receiving the Holy Spirit. But this is not a license to sin at will, as Paul writes earlier in Romans 6. Sin is a very serious thing, and violent imagery is used to describe the Christian struggle with sin (spiritual warfare, Make War (Tedashii song), armor of God, die daily, etc etc). As John Owen said, “Be killing sin or sin will be killing you.” However, the condition which Paul repeatedly condemns is more likened to a state of continuous and unrepentant sin. Christians are covered by the blood of Christ and take on Christ’s perfection when they accept his death and resurrection. Christians are no longer under the dominion of their flesh and the rule of evil. So while they will, without a doubt, continue to sin every day, even every hour, the peril lies most plainly in habits of sin, and most dangerously in habits of sin that the Christian carries out knowingly and in rebellion against God and the sacrifice of Jesus Christ that they claim to embrace.
Okay that’s yet again a lot of theology. Here’s what I think are the problems Christians have in living with the doctrine of sin and the ways in which they alienate and offend non-believers in a way that is unhelpful and unloving.
Christians have converted sin into acts that can be adjudicated to be sinful or not sinful and then categorized into acceptable or unacceptable Christian behaviors. Instead of examining the condition of their hearts and minds and earnestly striving to live in a way that is pleasing to God each day, Christians justify themselves by examining their activities and determining whether or not they were sinning or not sinning.
So when we talk about sins, we talk about them as items of activity. In almost all Christian circles, you sinned if you:
- swore
- broke the law
- had sex with your girlfriend/boyfriend
- watched porn
- masturbated
- drank alcohol illegally
- used illegal drugs
- physically hurt someone
- stole something
Just to name some of the big ones. Of course there are more, and in some Christian traditions there are a lot more.
This itemization of sin has two major negative side effects. The first is that it turns Christians into Pharisees, the people Jesus spent a lot of his time torching for their self-righteous superiority. If someone can not do the things on this list, they may think of themselves as being a good Christian while considering people who do these things to be wicked sinners. It’s only a matter of time before that way of thinking makes someone think of themselves as being a better human being. All you have to do is read through the Gospels and you will see how outrageously un-Christian this mindset is. But it exists all the same. Drug users and prostitutes are looked at as yucky and scummy, and many Christians would like them ushered out if they showed up on a Sunday morning.
Seriously. If you claim to love Jesus and follow his teachings but you look down on the drug dealer, the pregnant high schooler, and the foul-mouthed drunkard, you have some messed up theology.
The second effect of the itemization of sin is an arbitrary masquerade of self-justification that looks a lot like earning your way to heaven and nothing like picking up your cross daily and following Jesus. Let’s go through some examples that reveal the problem with asking “Is it a sin if…?”
Some people think it is sinful to drive even one mile over the speed limit because that means knowingly breaking the law. Most Christians hear this and roll their eyes (side note: as long as you think something is sin and still do it, it is sin for you. Regardless of the “right answer,” if you do something thinking it is sin, it is). But then here’s my question for the Christian rolling their eyes: Is it sinful to drive 50 miles over the speed limit? I imagine the answer is probably yes. If you drive 75 in a 25, you are putting other people in serious danger and blatantly breaking a law.
Checkmate.
Because if driving 50 over is sinful but one mile over is not, here’s what I’ll ask next: 49? 48? 47? 46?
Eventually you will reach an arbitrary number that is, for you, not sin.
Next example: Christians spend a good deal of time worrying about the media they consume, and what media they should let their kids consume. And of course they should, as Christians should be mindful of what they are focusing their minds on, but these questions often create opportunities for absurd loopholes and self-justification gymnastics. Here’s how this works with R-rated movies.
Let’s say a Christian family wants to watch an R-rated film. Well, until the kids are a certain age, the R rating alone probably rules the film out.
The first hurdle is sex. Is there a sex scene? Throw it out. Bare breast? Toss it. Bare backside? Probably okay. But… if the breast is only visible for a quick second, that might be okay. And, if the sex scene is under the covers, that might be fine. And, the scene is really pretty quick anyway. And the couple love each other very much. The family probably just fast-forwards through the scene and tells the youngest ones to close their eyes, but the teenage boys watching Enemy at the Gates probably get really quiet when Vasily starts thrusting on top of Tanya and conveniently forget to fast-forward.
So how about violence? Well some Christians just refuse to watch violent content. But most are more concerned with the way the violence is portrayed. Is it historical violence? Oh, then that’s fine once the kids are old enough to not have nightmares. Is it just a ridiculous action movie? Well there’s nothing malicious about that. It really doesn’t take long before the only wanton destruction of images of God that Christians stay away from is the horror movie genre.
What about profanity?
Pardon my French, but I don’t know where the fuck Christians get their rules for swearing.
These decisions, in all facets of a Christian’s life, so often come down to arbitrary rulings subject to personal whims and cultural influence. There is nothing in the Bible explaining which movies are okay to watch. There is nothing drawing a line of sin in the sex scene: bare backside? bare breast? moaning? orgasm? Christians can loophole their way past sin in ways that make a mockery of their beliefs. Let me really mess with your mind: If you try to come up with a case defending masturbation as a Christian, you should find it to be really, really easy.
This itemization process creates disproportionate attention for the outward actions instead of the inward condition of the heart. Rather than asking themselves if they are gracious and merciful and loving and seeking purity and desiring God, Christians keep an unofficial scoreboard of legalistic rulings. A wall is built between thoughts and actions. Tell me who sinned: The Christian who flipped through the channels and for a brief moment caught a glimpse of a porno on HBO, or the Christian who got aroused watching the passionate kiss in the PG-13 movie?
Being a Christian is about waking up every day ready to live for God and not for yourself. It’s about wanting to sin but restraining. It’s about knowing God still loves you even when you do sin. And it’s about filling the space in your life that you might fill with sin with extreme love for your neighbor.
Christians sin. A lot. And all sins, even a quick fantasy over the Hannah Davis DirecTV commercial or a slanderous word of gossip about your ex-boyfriend are punishable by death.
But Jesus Christ died and to pay the penalty for every single sin, and he rose from the grave to defeat the reign of death. The Gospel, the greatest demonstration of love in history, should cause Christians to be filled with joy because of their redemption, to celebrate being a new person in Christ, to fight each day to defeat sin, and to find comfort knowing that although God does not withhold the battles he still grants the victories and lifts his children up when they fail. The Gospel should fill Christians with radical love and joy that causes them to love all of their neighbors, and perhaps especially the ones engulfed in sin, neighbors who are no less worthy of salvation than the Christian was before accepting Christ. Christians living in this way should be honest with themselves and see how they still continue to fail, and never think of themselves as being more righteous than others. Rather, they should humble themselves and speak of the mercy and grace of God while showing mercy and grace to others.
This understanding of sin should also provide a freedom for Christians; they should be unburdened by the self-governing adjudication of sin and not-sin. Dear brothers and sisters: if you are reading the Bible and praying regularly and are involved in a healthy Christian community, you will know what is sin and what is not sin. You do not have to rely on arbitrary rules. In fact, those rules will more often than not be your own sinful flesh’s way of justifying something you know to be unhelpful for your spirituality. Or it may be that your reasoning is really just a means of making yourself feel more holy. Stop asking, “Is it a sin if…?” Because if you are living each day in pursuit of knowing God better and finding joy in the love of Jesus, you will know. And, if you are more focused on what you should be doing, particularly loving your neighbor, than on what you should not be doing, that will also be to your immense benefit.
If you believe the Gospel, then your life should not be about what not to do. Rather, it should be about knowing what God did for you and does for you, and how that affects your life. If you grasp even the beginnings of the height and breadth of God’s love, mercy, and grace in spite of the size of sin, then you should not only pursue a life of daily growth over arbitrary answers, but you should feel that much more love for every other human being. Freedom from sin does not make you better than other humans. Rather, freedom from sin makes you better equipped to love other humans.
Soli Deo Gloria
– Peter
eloquent mumbler 