We are all impacted by events like the killing of innocent lives like those at the Nashville Christian School this week. Our emotions may vary depending on who we are as individuals because we all have a “filter” much like that on a camera that reduces sunlight. They say that if five people see an accident, the police will receive five different statements of what occurred. There can be many reasons for the differences; however, many times they are personal reasons.
The sin in our lives creates a “rose-colored” filter when looking at similar sins in others’ lives. As sinners, we tend to be less willing to judge others because we don’t like being judged. As a Christian, the first step toward gaining salvation is admitting we are a sinner. That confession is to Jesus Christ. The next step is to acknowledge that He died on the cross and rose from the grave three days later to take on “our” sins so that we could be forgiven and have a path to Heaven. We must ask Jesus to accept our commitment to Him, it is free for the asking. He paid the price. It is as simple as that, but it will not protect us from sinning again.
God had created Adam and Eve to live their lives without sin in a place where all their needs were provided for without effort on their part. They were given “free will” to make decisions and not with built-in controls that would always force the correct decisions. It was Satan’s lies that produced that first sin that changed everything. In Genesis 6 we see God flooding the Earth saving only Noah, his family, and two of each animal to clean the Earth of the sins that had been accepted as normal behavior. In Genesis 19, we see God destroying the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah because of the sin that had been made normal in those societies.
By reading the Bible, we see sin leading to much suffering throughout history. It has been said that history repeats itself. We fail to learn from the past and then make the same mistakes. Sin is a slippery slope that starts small and then picks up speed like a snowball rolling down the side of a mountain. When it reaches the bottom of the mountain, the size and force might wipe out the whole village.
Most Christians, try to remove sin from their lives and it is hopeful that our lives show that; however, is that enough? We know we must forgive others when they hurt us, and that judgment should be left to God. Does that truly mean that everything is only God’s to judge? That understanding is a lie from Satan. From that moment that God gave Moses the Ten Commandments that we see in Exodus 20, we were given rules to live by. In Matthew 5, Jesus tells us how to live and how to treat others with His Sermon on the Mount. Then in verse 17, He begins to make it clear that He did not come to abolish the laws that were given to Moses many years earlier. His coming was the fulfillment of them. His message was clear that we are all expected to live by them and to have them as the standard for the societies we are a part of.
Apostle Paul wrote in 2 Thessalonians 3 about the danger of idleness. This message was a warning to the Christians and non-believers about not being willing to work and earn their way. To help those that truly need help and not help those who are able to work. In Romans 1, Paul writes about standing firm in the righteousness of God. To call out evil where it exists and to not allow evil to become the way of life or normal in our society. Christians are expected to stand with God against wickedness.
Romans 1: 18-32 NIV
God’s Wrath Against Sinful Humanity
18 The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of people, who suppress the truth by their wickedness, 19 since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. 20 For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse.
21 For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened. 22 Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools 23 and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like a mortal human being and birds and animals and reptiles.
24 Therefore God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another. 25 They exchanged the truth about God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator—who is forever praised. Amen.
26 Because of this, God gave them over to shameful lusts. Even their women exchanged natural sexual relations for unnatural ones. 27 In the same way the men also abandoned natural relations with women and were inflamed with lust for one another. Men committed shameful acts with other men, and received in themselves the due penalty for their error.
28 Furthermore, just as they did not think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God, so God gave them over to a depraved mind, so that they do what ought not to be done. 29 They have become filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed and depravity. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit and malice. They are gossips, 30 slanderers, God-haters, insolent, arrogant and boastful; they invent ways of doing evil; they disobey their parents; 31 they have no understanding, no fidelity, no love, no mercy. 32 Although they know God’s righteous decree that those who do such things deserve death, they not only continue to do these very things but also approve of those who practice them.
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