'Sin'.
(Now don't run away, but ...)
There!
I've said it!
Now how do you think about ever using that word?!
And most people reckon on preachers being ALWAYS agin' it! (Though that can sometimes make us pretty unpopular!)
But preachers are agin' it because God is agin' it ... and that's actually a point that often goes missing.
There's a whole set of mistakes our culture makes that stop us DEALING with the problem of 'sin'
Firstly, Spelling is often a problem, we humans find it easy to spell 'sin' 'f-u-n'
And it isn't.
It really is not.
Secondly, seeing sin as simply self-harm is quite common
Preachers are often the ones who make this mistake, too eager to get people to recognise it as an issue, and playing straight into the mis-perception of a self-centred culture.
Now of course one of the effects of sinful lifestyles really IS self harm
But there is often a time lag between the 'pleasure' of the sin sin and feeling the effects of the self-harm.
This
makes people not take sin too seriously
The Bible itself is very clear and honest about this. Hebrews 11 says that the young Moses: "... refused to be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter; choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God, than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season" (Hebrews 11:24-25).
Yet that self-harm is often only clear to outsiders
... and even when it IS recongised, it so tragically attracts the defence that
'it's nobody's business but mine'.
Oh - that is a frequent
mistake!
A third REALLY common mistake we make about sin is reckoning it could EVER be 'not hurting
anybody'
Now, of course, it CAN actually be taking place in private - sin
hides its own shame ...but there are usually consequences for somebody else ...
often for someone we do not think is suffering from it.
You see, the thing is, we do all have to breathe the same air!
Polluting the air here
DOES affect the atmosphere for everyone.
And it most directly affects someone we
haven't noticed ... this is the big issue with sin both in our experience of
life and in the Bible
So, Biblically, sin is something we do against GOD
The point that we so often miss, is that sin is ultimately and actually something we do against GOD.
It pollutes His people and it pollutes and messes with His Creation.
And selling it as being short of that excuses and trivialises not only human SIN, but also trivialises God's provision of Salvation.
Famously, after making a fool of himself publicly in the biggest sin of his life King David came to his senses and declared: " I know my transgressions,
and my sin is always before me.
Against you, you only, have I sinned
and done what is evil in your sight; (Psalm 51:3-4)
There is an ultimate, costly and practical solution ...
Here's the point(s)
Our verse comes (very practically in two parts)
1. Sin is a PROBLEM ... drop it as if it is hot!
1 John 2:1 "My dear children, I write this to you so
that you will not sin."
'Lay OFF it', says John!
We say 'repent', but that means to
REPUDIATE ... reject and push away ... your own sin from your own heart.
See the snag?
It's much easier said than it's done, but if you make that resolve seriously,
But (GOOD NEWS) God has a solution for 'running failure' as well!
2. Your sin has already been SORTED ... but only if you get hold of this:
1 John 2:1-2 " ... if anybody does sin, we have an advocate with the Father – Jesus Christ, the Righteous One.
He is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for ours but also for the sins of the whole world."
John was writing these words to believers, who'd turned from a life of sin to trust Christ and spend their ordinary life from that point on following Him.
The takeaway
Sin's an issue that PLAGUES our entire world.
Biblically we are ALL part of the problem, but we see and feel it from
different angles.
- The solution is not to deny there's a
problem ... cover it up or try to pretend it doesn't exist
- The answer's to come out of that closet, and turn to the One Who can sort out the consequences, and our addiction to it
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