This week I’ve felt that the Lord wants me to let people know my beliefs on sin and how it can affect our lives. For some people they may feel that I’m too ‘extreme’ in my beliefs, my blog posts are not meant to be seen as judgemental but will hopefully make people stop, reflect and when necessary seek God and see what he wants them to do in their life.

As followers of Christ we need to keep in mind sin is sin but we have a tendency to ‘rank’ sin, with murder and rape high up the proverbial rankings list and what we consider to be minor sins for instance being a habitual swearer, drinking to excess frequently as something we don’t need to address in our lives. Yet for God he hates all forms of sin.

The enemy will always try to tempt us, make us question Scripture, question our church leaders, put off repenting as there will always be tomorrow to repent but for some tomorrow may not come. For some people they’ve misunderstood Scripture in that because God is love, they can do what we want because he’s their loving heavenly father and will not judge them for their wrong doings.

The writer of Hebrews warns us against this type of lifestyle in chapter 10:26-31 in that if those who have ‘accepted’ Jesus as their Lord and Saviour but intentionally sin there remains no sacrifice for sins, and the Lord will judge his people. Alice Cooper said in an interview “intentional sin is like committing first degree murder”, which when I heard that it made me stop and think of the times when I have given into temptation with the thought I can always repent after.

God does give us the freedom to love Him but we don’t have a choice with the consequences of our sin. Which is outlined in John 3:16 in that God so loved the world ‘anyone who’ believes in Him…. Jesus when he said these words was not commanding anyone to love him, but he was offering forgiveness and eternal life with the listener / reader having a choice to accept this offer. This offer though is time sensitive and for the majority we will not know when we will die.

For most people when we’re struggling with sinful habits and lets be honest most forms of sin become a habit, the enemy can make us feel that we’re on our own and that no-one can help, plus he will make us feel ashamed, guilty which can mean we don’t / are reluctant to seek help and support from our close friends. But it’s during these times that we need to be accountable with close friends, and pray together that God will help us in these areas.

I’ve had discussions we people who believe that God didn’t ‘mean’ to say that certain acts are sin or he’s changed His mind because it’s now 2020, the Bible verses which comes to mind is 1 Samuel 15:29 in that God is not mortal so what acts which he considered to be sin 2000+ years ago he still considers them to be sin. And Jesus says in John 8:34 “I told you that you would die in your sins, for you will die in your sins unless you believe that I am he.” [NRSV]

This coming week take time out to reflect and think are there any sinful activities which you’ve either been too ashamed to get along someone to be accountable with, or you’ve thought you can deal with it ‘tomorrow’.

Please note all Bible quotes and links have been taken from Biblegateway.com