a drop of waterWhen Should Christians Take a Hard Stand Against Sin?
This was the last message in the annual Tough Questions series at Coast Vineyard this past Sunday. Pastor Michelle gave the message and here are the sermon notes:
Bible often uses the metaphor of blindness when referring to sin; when you can’t see, you are a hazard to yourself and those around you.
When should Christians Take a hard stand against sin? (Luke 6:39-42)
1. First and foremost, when we find it in our own lives. (We can not help anyone without dealing with ourselves first)
2. Second and only second, when we find it in the church. (Must be saturated with humility, compassion and patience. – Gal 6:1) The message is not to never look at others and only at yourself, but instead to look at yourself very hard so that you can be available and able to help others around you. It is a responsibility to each other, for us to get ourselves in shape.Is that It? What About Everyone Else? (Matt 5:15-16)
Our good works and not our rebukes are our witness to the world.What About Politics
Pitfall #1: Confusing our faith with politics.
Pitfall #2: Removing our faith from politics.
Solid Ground: Acting like Jesus in our politics.Let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven.
We must be a light in our community and show the world God’s invitation into relationship through grace.
Separation of church and state was intended to keep government from enforcing a particular form of religion, and not prohibiting religions influence on the state.
I like the idea for us to take a hard stand against sin “when we find it in our own lives,” but I’d like to explicity add that it is important for us to take a hard stand against the sin in our own lives. Its there, so its not a matter of when we see it, its a matter of when we decide to see it. I like the idea that its importance is rooted in supporting and helping those around you. We aren’t taking a hard stand against sin in our own lives just to make ourselves ‘better’ or make those around us ‘better’, instead we are taking a hard stand against sin to glorify God, together. It is a communical process and commitment in relationship, to stand firm against sin together.
I think that it is helpful to break up this question further into a few ideas. 1. Whether we should and how we should take a hard stand against sin are two completely different questions. 2. Does it matter what type of sin it is and the scope that it has, i.e. personal or global (social injustice) – though admittedly all sin is far reaching in its effect no matter how personal it may seem. I believe we should always take a hard stand against sin, but how realizes into action is a lot more fuzzy. I’m torn between the idea that we should wait for an opportunity to share our hard stance against a specific sin or if we should openly and readily share it, regardless of who is listening. I’m torn because it seems like taking an uncompromising stance on sin is of so much more value when someone is seeking guidance, or encouragement to not compromise, or to hold fast to a prior commitment versus someone who doesn’t see, believe, or entertain the idea that they are in error. But at the same time, what if that opportunity never comes?
How to take a hard stance against sin – this to me is the tough question. Maybe the how lies somewhere in the gray area of how much it affects me? Does the sin’s scope directly affect me and should that dictate how active I am in expressing my hard stance agains it? Sin has the ability to make everything around it rotten, imperceptibly until its too late. Soemthing I’m realizing is that sin often begets sin, i.e. the extreme example of someone killing someone starts the vicious cycle of killing. So I believe that one key aspect of taking a hard stance against sin is making sure that you aren’t sinning in the process (more emphasis on examining yourself first). Sometimes taking a hard stance against sin is passive, sometimes its active. Jesus takes a hard stance against sin and in a world where sin is very present, each of us has the free will to choose to sin or not to sin. So I guess that comes back to the closing point of the sermon, to “let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven.”
I'm glad you broke down the question, because otherwise I think it is both overly simple, and uninteresting. When should Christians take a hard stand against sin? When it exists. That is in some ways a joke answer, but there is much truth in it as well. Any other answer means being conditionally accepting of sin, and while we are not to *judge* sin, we're certainly not to encourage it (when one does not condemn a behavior, one is in essence accepting it, if in no other sense than through indifference).
In regards to the how – what would be an example of sinning while taking a hard stance against sin (other than the obvious and/or comical – beating someone up to tell them it is sinful to beat someone up, etc)?
- Anonymous Non-Liberal
Joe aka #1 fan
18 Feb 09 at 3:41 pm
RE: First paragraph. I'm not so sure its so straight forward as “to not condemn a behavior, is to accept it” Like … God doesn't go around condemning each of our sins as we commit them, yet he certainly does not accept them. He's condemned them in other places, if we take the time to look and we find his forgiveness too if we look. So this goes back to my question of How we are suppose to take a hard stance against sin.
I believe that maybe one example would be associating the sin with the sinner and in turn hating the sinner along with the sin…but you ask a good question and I should come up with some more concrete examples.
Thanks Joe.
dhoff
18 Feb 09 at 3:49 pm
Please correct me if I am responding to something you didn't say. I will address the two points in opposite order:
1) I'm not sure what you mean by God doesn't condemn our sins. He forgives us of them, that is true, but only at the cost of Jesus' blood, the ultimate condemnation of sin – death. To say God doesn't condemn them immediately as they happen (which is because they've already been condemned), I'm not sure that is a takeaway behavior that we should implement in our lives. And condemnation does not exclude forgiveness – as we both agree, we're not to judge, but at the same time we're not to overlook/accept.
2) Re: accepting a behavior. If I poke you non stop from now until forever, and you never tell me to stop, or express some form of distaste/condemnation of my behavior, you're being accepting of it. Doesn't mean you like it, but it means you accept it. When sin exists, and we know it as sin, and we do not condemn it as sin, we're accepting it.
- Not Joe, Anonymous Non-Liberal
Joe aka #1 fan
18 Feb 09 at 4:07 pm
I'm glad you broke down the question, because otherwise I think it is both overly simple, and uninteresting. When should Christians take a hard stand against sin? When it exists. That is in some ways a joke answer, but there is much truth in it as well. Any other answer means being conditionally accepting of sin, and while we are not to *judge* sin, we're certainly not to encourage it (when one does not condemn a behavior, one is in essence accepting it, if in no other sense than through indifference).
In regards to the how – what would be an example of sinning while taking a hard stance against sin (other than the obvious and/or comical – beating someone up to tell them it is sinful to beat someone up, etc)?
- Anonymous Non-Liberal
Joe aka #1 fan
18 Feb 09 at 11:41 pm
RE: First paragraph. I'm not so sure its so straight forward as “to not condemn a behavior, is to accept it” Like … God doesn't go around condemning each of our sins as we commit them, yet he certainly does not accept them. He's condemned them in other places, if we take the time to look and we find his forgiveness too if we look. So this goes back to my question of How we are suppose to take a hard stance against sin.
I believe that maybe one example would be associating the sin with the sinner and in turn hating the sinner along with the sin…but you ask a good question and I should come up with some more concrete examples.
Thanks Joe.
dhoff
18 Feb 09 at 11:49 pm
Please correct me if I am responding to something you didn't say. I will address the two points in opposite order:
1) I'm not sure what you mean by God doesn't condemn our sins. He forgives us of them, that is true, but only at the cost of Jesus' blood, the ultimate condemnation of sin – death. To say God doesn't condemn them immediately as they happen (which is because they've already been condemned), I'm not sure that is a takeaway behavior that we should implement in our lives. And condemnation does not exclude forgiveness – as we both agree, we're not to judge, but at the same time we're not to overlook/accept.
2) Re: accepting a behavior. If I poke you non stop from now until forever, and you never tell me to stop, or express some form of distaste/condemnation of my behavior, you're being accepting of it. Doesn't mean you like it, but it means you accept it. When sin exists, and we know it as sin, and we do not condemn it as sin, we're accepting it.
- Not Joe, Anonymous Non-Liberal
Joe aka #1 fan
19 Feb 09 at 12:07 am