I've been thinking about this. I'm not adding this to my list of doctrines or anything - but it has been something on my mind that has kept my mind churning. It's a thought process, not a single thought. Here goes:
In China the women riding bicycles wear garbage bags on their arms and giant visors on their heads. All this so that they don't tan. In a land of dark skinned people being white is beautiful. In America women lay in a "cancer coffin" to get their skin darker. In a land of lots of white people dark skin is beautiful. The first time I laughed at this notion and pointed it out to my friends an older friend said, "It's the mark of the beast - it's a sign of our sinful fallen nature."
Blondes want to be redheads, brunettes want to go blond. We want to be anything but what we are. Satan has done a very good job convincing us that whatever it is we are it isn't good enough. I've been wondering if this principal also applies to sin. Is our sincere desire to remove sin from our lives a sign that we truly want to follow God or is it a sign that we want to be anything but what we are? Do we desire to sin less because we fail to love ourselves as Christ loves us?
I'm not saying we should all go out and sin it up like fools. I think that our desires are out of place. Our desire shouldn't be to avoid sin - it should be to follow God. A lot of people would argue that if you are avoiding sin it means you love God ... but there are a lot of reasons why one would try and eradicate sin (most of them pretty selfish.) If you truly try and follow God I believe that eventually the sin in your life will becomes a lot less fun - and your desire to sin will decrease. I don't believe the converse is true. An eradication of sin does not always mean an increased devotion to God.
I've seen too many Christians who make it their life goal to eradicate sin from their lives. I haven't seen many Christians who have made it work. I've seen people who run scared all the time because they fear that they might sin.
If we loved ourselves as Christ does we wouldn't fear our sin. Eradication of sin isn't the ultimate goal of a Christian life. Have we fallen for Satan's trap and made our primary concern of the Christian's life something that isn't all that important? I think that sin is bad, but I know that Christ didn't die on the cross for the sole purpose of watching me struggling all day to try and rid my life of all sin. That's not why he died. He died to give life - and yes, the Christian life does contain an element of sin removal - and give it abundantly. There's a lot more to the Christian life than trying to live without sin.
I don't like the shape of my body. I know I should lose weight, but I also know that I shouldn't hate myself because of my weight.
I don't like my sin. I know that I should sin less, but I also know that I shoudlnt' hate myself because of my sin.
Christ died out of love for mankind. I know that he doesn't want us to hate ourselves because of the sin that he died to forgive. I'm not going to look longingly at the greener grass on the other side of the fence. I'm going to look instead at Christ.
In China the women riding bicycles wear garbage bags on their arms and giant visors on their heads. All this so that they don't tan. In a land of dark skinned people being white is beautiful. In America women lay in a "cancer coffin" to get their skin darker. In a land of lots of white people dark skin is beautiful. The first time I laughed at this notion and pointed it out to my friends an older friend said, "It's the mark of the beast - it's a sign of our sinful fallen nature."
Blondes want to be redheads, brunettes want to go blond. We want to be anything but what we are. Satan has done a very good job convincing us that whatever it is we are it isn't good enough. I've been wondering if this principal also applies to sin. Is our sincere desire to remove sin from our lives a sign that we truly want to follow God or is it a sign that we want to be anything but what we are? Do we desire to sin less because we fail to love ourselves as Christ loves us?
I'm not saying we should all go out and sin it up like fools. I think that our desires are out of place. Our desire shouldn't be to avoid sin - it should be to follow God. A lot of people would argue that if you are avoiding sin it means you love God ... but there are a lot of reasons why one would try and eradicate sin (most of them pretty selfish.) If you truly try and follow God I believe that eventually the sin in your life will becomes a lot less fun - and your desire to sin will decrease. I don't believe the converse is true. An eradication of sin does not always mean an increased devotion to God.
I've seen too many Christians who make it their life goal to eradicate sin from their lives. I haven't seen many Christians who have made it work. I've seen people who run scared all the time because they fear that they might sin.
If we loved ourselves as Christ does we wouldn't fear our sin. Eradication of sin isn't the ultimate goal of a Christian life. Have we fallen for Satan's trap and made our primary concern of the Christian's life something that isn't all that important? I think that sin is bad, but I know that Christ didn't die on the cross for the sole purpose of watching me struggling all day to try and rid my life of all sin. That's not why he died. He died to give life - and yes, the Christian life does contain an element of sin removal - and give it abundantly. There's a lot more to the Christian life than trying to live without sin.
I don't like the shape of my body. I know I should lose weight, but I also know that I shouldn't hate myself because of my weight.
I don't like my sin. I know that I should sin less, but I also know that I shoudlnt' hate myself because of my sin.
Christ died out of love for mankind. I know that he doesn't want us to hate ourselves because of the sin that he died to forgive. I'm not going to look longingly at the greener grass on the other side of the fence. I'm going to look instead at Christ.
posted by Michael Airgood at 7:58 PM
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