Pointless to Focus on Sin

Thomas White said:

Teach people to love God and their neighbor. Teach them how to find Christ. The Holy Spirit will figure out the rest.

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You are talking about an all consuming, compelling, unconditional, unselfish, undeserving, illogical try of Love, which is wonderful. Can you please expalin how an unbelieving sinner can first obtain such a Love since it is way beyond a person's ability to learn ,develop, earn, or deserve and cannot be instictive (robotic) or forced on a person?

Thomas White said:

So many churches spend all their time focusing on sin and believers shouldn't sin. It's a pointless focus.

Jesus didn't focus on sin and what sins not to commit. Why do we focus on it?

Our ministry should have one focus: love. Let the world know we are Christians by our love, not our rulebooks. If we love God and love one another, we will detest sin and be a lot happier.

Jesus didn't condemn the world and neither should we. Stop focusing on sin, and start loving like Jesus.

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I couldn't agree more. Focus on love. What does love do? How do we love as Christ loved us, which is his command to us?

Invariably, a focus on love is going to address what love doesn't do, i.e. sin. But one can avoid breaking a set of rules and yet not love. One could not lie, not covet, not sleep around, not etc., and yet have no interest in the interests of others. A completely selfish and self-centered individual can avoid "sin" and yet not have love. Love rightly done, on the other hand, will fulfill the law and more.

Thomas White said:

So many churches spend all their time focusing on sin and believers shouldn't sin. It's a pointless focus.

Jesus didn't focus on sin and what sins not to commit. Why do we focus on it?

Our ministry should have one focus: love. Let the world know we are Christians by our love, not our rulebooks. If we love God and love one another, we will detest sin and be a lot happier.

Jesus didn't condemn the world and neither should we. Stop focusing on sin, and start loving like Jesus.

Click to expand...

sin is what prevent's love in the first place. It is good to deal with sin in the context of stating the need for " repentance " brought about as a result of Jesus Christ Working in your life.

The Lord says we are to keep His commandments which involves overcoming sin. He commands us to love God & neighbor ( Matthew 22:36-40), treat others by this ( Matthew 7:12), basic living commandments to overcome sin ( Matthew 19:16-19 & compare to Romans 13:8-10). We have to attend to our hearts in overcoming sin because as the Lord says in Matthew 15:17-19. If we do not understand matters like these then we do not understand John 3:16-21.

Thomas White said:

So many churches spend all their time focusing on sin and believers shouldn't sin. It's a pointless focus.

Jesus didn't focus on sin and what sins not to commit. Why do we focus on it?

Our ministry should have one focus: love. Let the world know we are Christians by our love, not our rulebooks. If we love God and love one another, we will detest sin and be a lot happier.

Jesus didn't condemn the world and neither should we. Stop focusing on sin, and start loving like Jesus.

Click to expand...

that sounds VERY new-agy tho idk
How didn't Jesus not focus on sin? He literally said to people they will DIE in thier sins John 8:24

Love which is blind and excludes considerations about justice, morality and sin which binds us isn't a very compelling form of love is it?

If Jesus merely loved everyone in the way you describe he would not have thrown the money changers out of his Father's temple. He would have tolerated them, tried to convince them, but would have been ultimately unable to convince them to get out.

The form of love the OP seems to advocate is a kind of simping love, not a genuine love.

Thomas White said:

So many churches spend all their time focusing on sin and believers shouldn't sin. It's a pointless focus.

Jesus didn't focus on sin and what sins not to commit. Why do we focus on it?

Our ministry should have one focus: love. Let the world know we are Christians by our love, not our rulebooks. If we love God and love one another, we will detest sin and be a lot happier.

Jesus didn't condemn the world and neither should we. Stop focusing on sin, and start loving like Jesus.

Click to expand...

Seems to me the problem is about focus. Not about sin. A good understanding of sin is essential to a good understanding of what is really going on in this life.

My gripe is about the focus on sins, as opposed to sin. I can't stomach a Sunday School class where the discussion is about whether this or that is a sin. I want to hear about killing the 'old man', killing the sin that still works against me, and the patience and grace and power of God in bringing us to walk with him.

David Hunter said:

Unfortunately... Many people don't really know what sin is.

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And some don't agree or see it as a big deal.
For example, in my last church there were a number of churchgoers who would do anything for anyone, generous, kind etc and went to church every Sunday - but who knew virtually nothing about the Bible, didn't seem to even read it and who didn't seem to understand about having a personal relationship with God. There were also people outside the church who did good works and were nice people.
In their eyes, sinners were people who didn't go to church or think about God and did evil works; burglary, murder etc.
Any suggestion that a nice person such as themselves might go to hell, would have been totally foreign to them.

Jesus said;
“Repent”.

“go and sin no more”.

“You know the commandments...”

“Be perfect, just as your Heavenly Father is perfect”.

“Follow Me”.

Love (agape)

The problem is, if we focus on either too much we are in error.

Just as we are to know the devils tactics and are warned to be vigilant as he roams looking to devour like a lion..... we are also not to spend all our time focused on the enemy....where your eyes point, your feet are soon to follow.

We are to be aware of sin, to watch for it, however if all we do is focus on sin.... again, we focus far to much on that which draws our flesh away from Christ.

IF Jesus told the woman, only that He did not condemn her, then we would be right to walk only in love and never worry about sin.

Hiwever, Jesus ALSO told the woman caught in adultry to "go and sin no more". IF Jesus is our example and we are to be made to His likeness.... then so too should we, walk in love, do not condemn AND remind others of the destruction that sin brings.

IF all we do is say God loves you, then send them off to continue loving sin... we send them off to their destruction and our hands are not clean.

The problem with walking in love only, is it is far too easy for the world and tge enemy to twist and justify the definition of love.

That is why we ARE to walk in love, we ARE to love the Lord our God with all our hearts and with all that we are capable, always wanting to love Him more than we can manage, and also our neighbor above ourselves.

However, IF that love does not exist within the framework of the law, fulfilled through Christ.... then that love is not really love but a twisted definition of love and we decieve ourselves.

One can certainly place too much focus on sin. However focus on sin at all is NOT pointless as to dedicate zero focus on sin is to justify or ignore the very thing that was so serious, it took the blood of Christ to deal with them.... to ignore sin completely is to ignore the price Jesus paid and the reason the price was paid.

Thomas White said:

So many churches spend all their time focusing on sin and believers shouldn't sin. It's a pointless focus.

Jesus didn't focus on sin and what sins not to commit. Why do we focus on it?

Our ministry should have one focus: love. Let the world know we are Christians by our love, not our rulebooks. If we love God and love one another, we will detest sin and be a lot happier.

Jesus didn't condemn the world and neither should we. Stop focusing on sin, and start loving like Jesus.

Click to expand...

Jesus was not born into sin. The Holy Spirit impregnated Mary which I think is the difference. Not that she was without sin, but The Holy Spirit worked His magic in creating the perfect human whereas we are of Adamic nature and are predestined to sin. I can understand the enforcement because sin leads to destruction and death. Death is hell, and not everlasting life although they are very much aware in hell, just not considered alive. When we are babies, and we get into something we are not supposed to, we will have evidence all over us but tell you we didn't do it.

Toro said:

We are to be aware of sin, to watch for it, however if all we do is focus on sin.... again, we focus far to much on that which draws our flesh away from Christ.

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Amen that last part. We like to tempt ourselves, play with temptation, do whatever we can to make ourselves not to blame for what we want to do.

Thomas White said:

Churches should be guiding people on how to deepen their walk with Christ. Without that walk, that relationship, people don't care that they sin.

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If we have not received forgiveness of a mortal sin, (any sin that breaks one of the Ten Commandments, and is done with full knowledge, and consent) in our lives, we are not walking in friendship with Jesus.

We use the grace God gives us, and the love we have for Jesus, and others, to help us avoid sin, which deepens our walk with Christ.

Thomas White said:

The Holy Spirit will figure out the rest.

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We have to respond to what the Holy Spirit is telling us to do. There has to be a cooperation.

Thomas White said:

If we are instructing people on how not to sin, then we are missing the point of discipleship. We should be instructing people on how to love and deepen their walk with Christ. Their personal habits are none of our business. The rest will come from that relationship.

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Assuming all your congregants are saved and have the Holy Spirit guilding them,
are you not the sheppard who leads the flock if they stray ? Sin is straying. There really is no getting around it as we are in the flesh. Be blessed.