Sin Is Sin...

I've had something on my mind all day today.

“When did we put ourselves above God and put a value to sin?”

“What do you mean preacher?”

“When was it acceptable for someone to talk about being delivered from drug addiction but not acceptable for someone to discuss addiction to pornography? Isn't addiction, ADDICTION, no matter what it is? Food addiction, sex addiction, drug addiction, addiction to nicotine, alcohol addiction?”

I had a conversation with a dear friend once about homosexuality and the church. This friend will remain nameless as will the church. The reason is exactly the reason for this post. He said, “It’s unacceptable, they need to be removed?”

I asked him, “Why?”

“It’s just not right,” he answered.

“So their sexuality is more wrong than the ones who are coming that live together and have children, but aren't married?” I asked. “Or what about the man and woman in the church that are married but not to each other yet are sleeping together?” I asked, posing hypotheticals.

Let's bring up a point here from another conversation. God forbid, but what's the difference between that scenario and a child molester? OUCH TOUCHY SUBJECT! Well, let's just kill the child molester. But Christ, who knew no sin, took sin (even the sin of child molestation) upon himself so that we might have the ability to be reconciled with our Creator God. Who, mind you, sent His only begotten Son to carry that sin.

What am I trying to get at? We as humans and in our upbringing, or lack thereof, have formulated a value system to sin. God never did. He said sin is sin. It’s all a heart issue. The little white lie you told your wife to keep out of a confrontation today is no less a sin to God than the one who beat his wife to death. The one who stole the package of meat today in the grocery store to feed his family, no matter the reason, is still a thief in the eyes of God. They are no less guilty than the one who slept with his neighbor's wife while her husband was slaving in the factory to make ends meet.

Our value spectrum to sin comes from our own imagination, parental teaching, and our community and environment we are raised in. If we erase all of this and take on the godly nature of 2 Peter 1, maybe our perspective on sin would change. Here is an excerpt from James 2 that brings a little more clarity to our value system:

8 If ye fulfil the royal law according to the scripture, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself, ye do well:
9 But if ye have respect to persons, ye commit sin, and are convinced of the law as transgressors.
10 For whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all.
11 For he that said, “Do not commit adultery,” said also, “Do not kill”. Now if thou commit no adultery, yet if thou kill, thou art become a transgressor of the law.
12 So speak ye, and so do, as they that shall be judged by the law of liberty.
13 For he shall have judgment without mercy, that hath shewed no mercy; and mercy rejoiceth against judgment.

If we love our neighbor as ourselves, we won’t have judgment toward them. Instead, mercy would show forth. Because in the midst of life, we may sin. And if we do, according to scripture in verse 10, we are guilty of it ALL. A transgressor is a transgressor according to verse 11. So, with verse 13, if we show no mercy, we that are guilty of just one sin will be judged as if we committed them all. But those that show mercy shall rejoice against (or triumph over) judgment and mercy will be shown to them. I say I want mercy over judgment. What you sow, rest assured, you shall reap. If you sew condemnation and judgment, guess what? You can’t plant corn and expect peas to come up. It don't work that way!

Someone asked why I preach about my addiction to pornography so much. It's because I have been set free! Just as free as the 15-year-old boy who woke up in a drug rehab is free of that addiction. Free as the 29-year-old that smoked two and a half packs a day when God's mercy showed up and he put them down in deliverance.

But this is the very reason you don't see deliverances much anymore except for the drug addict or the alcoholic, because it’s the acceptable deliverance. Because it ain't as “messy” as the one who has a sexual addiction. That addiction has a stigmatism to it from Christian society saying, “OH! That's bad. You shouldn't talk about it.” People have caused it to be a thing of shame instead of just a sin situation. Sin and guilt will tell you I did something bad, but shame will turn that into a shirt and make you wear it. It says, “I am bad, therefore I don't deserve”.

We have hung so much judgment on certain sins that people who are guilty of them become so ashamed that they don't feel like they deserve freedom. Therefore, they never feel like they can come forward because the CHURCH has become like the Pharisee. We have become as Jesus said in Matthew 23:27 “Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye are like unto whited sepulchres, which indeed appear beautiful outward, but are within full of dead men's bones, and of all uncleanness.” We beg people to come in but stand in the doorway and won't let certain ones in.

We must reevaluate our thoughts with the renewing of our minds, by the washing of the water of the Word. It’s high time we become what we say we are - a Church that is built out of the love of God for mankind and a place for people to find a way to escape their sin nature. A path unto the glorious light of the Father!