Responding to Sin with some Amazing Grace

Today we live in a world that has seen an ever-increasing change in how our society views right and wrong. For most Christians who believe that the Bible is God’s word and is the ultimate and final authority on all matters, this leaves us at a loss on how to respond to society appropriately.

How do you respond to those who readily and willingly live and thrive in sin? How do you respond when others are willingly putting their spiritual lives and others spiritual lives in harms way?

This question may seem easy to some, but difficult to others. Some would say you just tell them how it is, and if you lose them oh well. Others would say it simply isn’t any of my business, and ignore it. While others describe it as a long difficult journey.

As I have entered into ministry here at Melville Baptist church I have been thrust into this question of how to tell the truth to those who need to hear it. The truth does need to be told.

This is evident because frequently I have been challenged with questions on the accuracy of Biblical translations over time. Whether or not the Bible was written for us or if we are simply reading other peoples letters, from another culture, and another time. If the Bible supports the LGBTQ+ community. Among other things.

The short answer is always, short and concise, to the point. However, it doesn’t provide room for growth through conversation. It doesn’t provide the opportunity to take all the difficulties one may have and air it, and then to talk about it. The short answer does not provide grace or mercy. The short answer is, no you are wrong, and who cares about how confused you may be about it, your confusion doesn’t change the truth. Doesn’t sound too loving, hey?

What is interesting is that we are in a society of instant information, and so when someone is truly wondering why, we tend to not have the time to explain it, or even the time to disagree. As a result we have come to the point of saying you are wrong simply because the Bible says. That is all. The Pharasee’s were good at this type of truth telling, they loved it, actually. You kind of get a sense of snideness when they would respond to someone who was living in sin, almost like they could taste some sort of addictive flavour. The addiction was the need to be correct. The addiction was the need to lord some sort of power over another.

We see this situation playing out in John 8:1-11

John 8:1–11 NLT

Jesus returned to the Mount of Olives, but early the next morning he was back again at the Temple. A crowd soon gathered, and he sat down and taught them. As he was speaking, the teachers of religious law and the Pharisees brought a woman who had been caught in the act of adultery. They put her in front of the crowd. “Teacher,” they said to Jesus, “this woman was caught in the act of adultery. The law of Moses says to stone her. What do you say?” They were trying to trap him into saying something they could use against him, but Jesus stooped down and wrote in the dust with his finger. They kept demanding an answer, so he stood up again and said, “All right, but let the one who has never sinned throw the first stone!” Then he stooped down again and wrote in the dust. When the accusers heard this, they slipped away one by one, beginning with the oldest, until only Jesus was left in the middle of the crowd with the woman. Then Jesus stood up again and said to the woman, “Where are your accusers? Didn’t even one of them condemn you?” “No, Lord,” she said. And Jesus said, “Neither do I. Go and sin no more.”

We see this first example of calling out sin aggressively to the point where the accusers are demanding the very life of the individual they have brought before Jesus.

We see this same sort of thing being played out in the church around us. We look in disgust at the people who are caught in sins we deem as particularly distatseful. We see people addicted to drugs and alcohol and we pass judgement. We strongly dispise the person who is caught in that sin. We look at the person who is caught in the confusion of the LGBTQ+ community and we declare them as, “gone with the wind”, there is no hope in helping them. Yet here we sit addicted to working long hours for the paycheque, or talking harshly to our loved ones, or speking ill behind others backs. Spreading hate and chaos to further our own agendas (isn’t this fun). Sometimes we give simply to show everyone else how good of a person we are or maybe to say look at how much money I have, then we scoff at the person giving all they have as they drop a penny into the plate (well I suppose the least someone could have in our society today is a nickel). We are all about calling out the sin of others but neglecting to deal with the very sin in our own lives, we neglect it because our sin isn’t in full view for all to see. We demand others deal with their stench but we refuse to deal with the rot festering within our very own lives because… it is hidden from plain view after all…

Maybe that one isn’t you. You don’t viciously attack others with your anger towards their sin while yours is decaying your own spiritual flesh. There is yet another approach to sin; it is the none of my business approach. You see the sin and instead of calling it out, you simply turn your head, or even worse you embrace it. Well lets call a spade a spade, if you turn your head away from sin without calling it out you may as well be embracing that sin. This idea is embraced by society after all. If you are a witness to a crime and you knowling receive, comfort or assist the person, you can potentially be looking at a charge for accessory. You didn’t do the deed but you didn’t do anything to stop it either. 1 Corinthians 5: 1-8 shows us a similar situation happening, it says

1 Corinthians 5:1–8 NLT

I can hardly believe the report about the sexual immorality going on among you—something that even pagans don’t do. I am told that a man in your church is living in sin with his stepmother. You are so proud of yourselves, but you should be mourning in sorrow and shame. And you should remove this man from your fellowship. Even though I am not with you in person, I am with you in the Spirit. And as though I were there, I have already passed judgment on this man in the name of the Lord Jesus. You must call a meeting of the church. I will be present with you in spirit, and so will the power of our Lord Jesus. Then you must throw this man out and hand him over to Satan so that his sinful nature will be destroyed and he himself will be saved on the day the Lord returns. Your boasting about this is terrible. Don’t you realize that this sin is like a little yeast that spreads through the whole batch of dough? Get rid of the old “yeast” by removing this wicked person from among you. Then you will be like a fresh batch of dough made without yeast, which is what you really are. Christ, our Passover Lamb, has been sacrificed for us. So let us celebrate the festival, not with the old bread of wickedness and evil, but with the new bread of sincerity and truth.

You know this last year I have been feeling the pressure to call out sin without any filter. People around me have been telling me I need to preach sincerely on LGTQ+ issues specifically. I agree to a point that we need to call out sin, but the question remains how. So I have prayed about this. Then, I had the privilege of talking to a very special young lady. Well, she would like to be called a “he”…

If that last little bit bugs you stay with me for a minute, you need to hear the rest. To give you some context, she is exploring transitioning from a female to a male.

To be clear, she and I have two different positions on whether or not this particular topic (among many) is Biblical.

What is interesting is that she approached me to ask me what was my theological opinion on the matter, so I was left with somewhat of a conundrum. The conundrum was, how do I deliver the truth about what the Bible says without damaging this girl's potential relationship with Jesus?

With this in mind she and I began a week long journey with each other talking regularly about how the Bible is translated, how it retains its accuracy, what do verses in the Bible say about “unnatural” sex and how does that respond to her particular case. Before I talked about any of this with her, the Holy Spirit reminded me to tell her how Jesus loves her and desires for her to walk with him. I told her how if she gave over everything in her life Jesus would help her make the changes in her life. But only if she submitted everything to him.

You see I believe that it isn’t my job to pass judgement on those who do not know Jesus Christ. I also believe that we need to be careful how we judge others lest we be judged like that ourselves. Matthew 7: 1-2 says “Do not judge others, and you will not be judged. For you will be treated as you treat others. The standard you use in judging is the standard by which you will be judged.” The question I asked in prayer as I listened to this girls testimony and she begged for clarity was, "Lord, how do I tell this girl about you and about the truth your word speaks?" Galatians 6: 1-3 specifically came to mind. In this passage we see a charge to walk gently and humbly with those who have fallen into sin and to share each others burdens. Being particularly careful not to fall into the same temptation ourselves. After this girl and I stopped meeting regularly about this topic, I continued to pray about her, but I also began to wonder, how many people within our current church today would I trust to engage with this girl in the way that we biblically should. The answer is very few. This is because I know a lot of Christians who respond like Pharasee’s and I also know a lot of Christians who are way too accepting of a lot of sin much like the congregation from 1 Corinthinas. I also know a lot of brothers and sisters who simply don’t think they have the theological capacity or the theological right to respond to such theological issues.

Paul responds to all the personalities above by saying again in 1 Corinthians 5: 12-13

1 Corinthians 5:12–13 NLT

It isn’t my responsibility to judge outsiders, but it certainly is your responsibility to judge those inside the church who are sinning. God will judge those on the outside; but as the Scriptures say, “You must remove the evil person from among you.”

So the questions remains, how do we respond to people who are living in sin. I believe that the Bible does give us clear examples and instructions on how to do this as well.

We just aren’t very good at following those instructions. You don’t have to look very far to see brothers and sisters in Christ who don’t agree with each other arguing about about what they deem as sin. You don’t have to look very far to see brothers and sisters demanding the pastor’s preach about this sin or that sin. But when it comes to their sin they shy away. They say, “Oh I am fully aware of my sin. You don’t have to point that out. I am working on it.” But the truth is they have grown to like the itch that that log in their eye gives them.

You don’t have to look very far to see brothers and sisters who have thrown each other before the church demanding for the law to be upheld! For that first stone to be cast, I think of the anger that soured the air around to mask or not to mask. We had no problems throwing our proverbial stones in that situation. One has to wonder are their other situations we have no problems throwing our stones in. Well of course there are. Whether we like to admit it or not, we stone the drunkered, we stone the addicted, we stone the teenage girl who is pregnant, we stone the person who confused by their feelings towards LGBTQ+.

If we truly allowed Jesus to be the shepherd, we would ignore the pharasee’s in our midst and we would be the church. We would sit with the woman at the well, we would not be repulsed by the man with leprosy, we would sit with the tax collectors of our time even though judging eyes might shoot daggars our way. We would hear their stories, and we would allow the Holy Spirit to guide our words. We aren’t called to be judge and jury, we are called to be the body of Christ. Sure sometimes we have to deal with those within the church, however the steps we should take to get to the point of “excommunication” are not instant, that road has many check points.

There is a story I quite like from the book “The Way of the Heart” by Henri Nouwen it goes like this “A brother…committed a fault. A council was called to which Abba Moses was invited, but he refused to go to it. Then the priest sent someone to say to him, ‘Come, for everyone is waiting for you.’ So he got up and went. He took a leaking jug, filled it with water, and carried it with him. The others came out to meet him and said to him, ‘What is this, Father?’ The old man said to them, ‘My sins run out behind me, and I do not see them, and today I am coming to judge the error of another.’ When they heard that they said no more to the brother but forgave him.”

John Newton had it right when he wrote the words (and I am paraphrasing heavily)… “Amazing Grace”... those words sound sweet, because Amazing Grace saved a wretch like me. And since amazing grace saved a wretch like me, I need to give amazing grace to others because amazing grace can save another wretch like me.

Remember we were all found in sin… when we were forgiven.

Lets sing that together open up your Hymn books to Hymn #202