What Sin Is
A few years ago my pastor's wife did the sermon. She's a good speaker, just like he is, and she has been a big influence on his life and it's good to hear her speak. She always seems so squeaky clean.
And she is. In fact, this particular time she spoke, she talked about times when she's sinned too. The story she offered as an example was when she, a girlfriend of hers and all of their kids went shopping. When they came out of the store, they found that the Suburban they were in had been broken into and an in-car DVD player had been stolen -- ripped out, wires still dangling there.
They were worried about scaring the kids -- even break-ins like that can feel violating and scary. So pastor's wife told her friend, "dont' worry about it, we'll just tell the kids something else." Basically, her first thought was to lie about it to the kids. But the friend said, "no, the truth is always the most important thing." Pastor's wife quickly agreed and felt ashamed that she would have lied about it.
That was it. Now, I know that she's the pastor's wife and I really didn't expect anything worse, even if there was worse. They absorb a LOT of criticism and it wouldn't be worth it to share more personal issues only to ask for more criticism. Our problems are private and if she did have worse, she has friends to tell, a husband to help; probably other family, too. But still, I thought at the time, that's it? That's the big "sin"???
What I didn't understand at the time was, that as much as that's just something a lot of people would do (lie) and not think twice about it, it really was a sin. There is no "this sin is worse than that sin." It's sin. If you don't have a relationship with Christ and believe His Word, it's all the same. The opposite is true, too. If you have that relationship, no matter how bad the sin is, it's forgiven. As soon as you do it, it's forgiven.
I'm revisiting this because I attend a Men's Group, as part of the Bay Area Fellowship Men's Ministry. In this group, I am often feeling like I need to bring something up, but don't because some of these guys are confessing these big things -- substance and physical abuse, gang membership, gunplay, etc. I worry and wonder if they'll be like "yeah, yeah, bother me when you really do something bad." And in my head, my response is, "but I AM sinning." Maybe it's not as condemned by the world at large as some of these other things being discussed, but it is a sin. I am as guilty as anyone.
There are no degrees of sin. Like my pastor's wife, I'm not going to discuss what my particular sins are -- I have guys to talk to, a wife, parents and pastors. That's where it belongs. But I understand now. It's all sin, a simple "white lie" holds the same degree as drugs or abuse. That is what it is and when I remember this, I stay humbled and grounded never feel like "well, at least I'm not as bad as that guy."
Keep this in mind, too. We're all just a single bad decision away from a life in prison. If you don't think this is you, or ever could be you. You may already be toast.
