the worst sin

[blackribbon]

What is it about our society that seems to want to make sexual sins the worst sins humanly possible? The one you are going straight to hell for and they erase all of the other aspects about someone's life?

We all sin. Nobody has their entire act together...but in reality, we are all a work in progress. Hopefully, as Christians, we are spending time daily trying to learn how to be more Christ-like in our thoughts and deeds while dealing straight-on with the places we are falling short...both by asking for forgiven and asking for help cleaning the garbage out of our lives.

What I notice is that people come through our forum and are quick to condemn others as going straight to hell because of single belief ... and that usually is a belief about sex ... without even taking time to get to know more of the whole person.

If you see sin, it is perfectly fine to point it out in a gentle loving manner to help get a brother/sister back on the right road...but to see one statement and announce that their salvation is in jeopardy over one perceived sin...well, actually only God has that judgement power.

QUICK ANNOUNCEMENT: Heaven will be full of sinners! God will be the only non-sinner there. The difference is that the ones there will be wearing a covering of God's grace.

John 8:7 (NIV)When they kept on questioning him, he straightened up and said to them, “Let any one of you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her.”

There was only one person who was in a position to throw the first stone...and He didn't. Be careful about throwing stones. God did not call us to beat each other up. He called us to love each other up and through love, help people overcome their weaknesses.


Before you start throwing the stone at the person you perceive as being a sexual deviant...make sure that you are not looking around the log in your own eye. Do you treat EVERYONE in your life with respect and love? ... enemies too? Have you EVER gossiped about someone? etc...



Matthew 7:3-5 (NIV)3 “Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye? 4 How can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when all the time there is a plank in your own eye? 5 You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye.

 

[memoriesbymichelle]

nice post blackribbon!

I think all sins are the same in God's eyes and I also think we will be surprised at certain people being in heaven. God is our judge and His plan will be established in us. There is more forgiveness if our hearts are right with Him. God's word says He wishes none to parish and in the end people will realize He is the Savior they needed. Those of us that have believed all along will be no better off than those that accept/repent at the end. It's actually more comforting if you can put your life in God's hands. I can't do it all the time, but it feels so good on the days that I CAN do it.

 

[memoriesbymichelle]

I have come to the belief that I think Pride is the worst sin of all. It was afterall the first sin and IMO, it is the most dangerous because the person that has it often won't admit it.

 

[dayhiker]

Michelle .. in the middle ages pride was the biggest sin by far and a reading of church history fines Christians doing some pretty extreme things to how they are humble. I forget all the details but an emperor went to the pope and prayed on his knees outside in the elements for well over 24 hrs waiting for the pope to pardon his sin.

 

[memoriesbymichelle]

When pride entered Satan and he decided he wanted to be God......that was the first sin IMO. And to me, it's one of the most dangerous sins because we can think we are all that and a bag of chips, living for God, but in reality we are not. Paul had this problem. He was a Christian killer who thought he was doing the work of the church until God spoke to him directly on the road to Damascus "Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?" Acts 9:4 When Saul asked who was speaking to him, the voice replied, "I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting. Now get up and go into the city, and you will be told what you must do." Acts 9:5-6.

And there are many examples in the bible where pride has wreaked havoc. King Saul was very prideful too and that became his downfall when he became jealous of David and took his focus off of God's plan

 

[dayhiker]

black ... I also wondered that for a long time as I studied what the Bible said about sex and marriage as to why sex became so evil. Part of my studies on this topic was to study church history. The change seems to have come in the early 300's AD. Before that the preaching was about how the pagans were worshiping nothing as their idols didn't talk, didn't hear their prayers and those idols were made by the hands of man. But by the 300's pagan temples were becoming Christian churches. So many Roman citizens were becoming Christian that it didn't make sense for the church to keep preaching about idol worship. What they stated preaching against was sex. Now in the OT the worst sexual activities was adultery and having sex with temple prostitutes. The fertility gods were going out of favor. With the fall of the temples where was almost no temple prostitutes around. Yet sex itself, even married sex became something to preach against. There were a number of reasons this came about. But from my read of church history is that that negative attitude towards sex is only in the last 40 yrs stated to change.

 

[dayhiker]

Yes, I agree, Michelle.

When pride entered Satan and he decided he wanted to be God......that was the first sin IMO.

 

[blackribbon]

I agree with the sin of pride being the greatest.

I know it is the one that I have to fight the most. Nothing I have is mine or because of anything I have done on my own.

 

[memoriesbymichelle]

what's interesting to me about the "sex is evil" topic is that throughout history and even in the bible where the woman was caught in the act of adultery the man is never chastized and I don't get that.

Even today, if a man is sleeping around he is considered a "player" while a woman doing the same thing is a Ho.
Likewise the prostitutes are usually woman. There are no places I have heard of where a woman can go and purchase sex (not that I would want to). There are plenty of escort services for men to "hire" a woman for the evening, but none where a woman can hire a man.

I really don't understand the one sidedness but I kind of do because it's always been that way. If a guy is overweight they say things like "he probably played football in HS, but if a woman is overweight, she just needs to stop eating and sweat!

 

[dayhiker]

I think that one sidedness comes from the patriarchal culture. its only in our life times that that is starting to change.

I think if you want a male escort that you could call an escort service and they would have a guy for you to check out. So they aren't advertized as there isn't the demand as you point out. I remember something about Richard Gere playing a male escort in one of his movies.

It will be interesting as woman get more money from moving up the corporate ladder if they will start to look for men to just meet with for sex as they might not have time for a relationship. There is a lot more stress in our society and one of the main ways to relieve stress is sex. The other is child birth and I don't expect women will be having more babies as they feel more stress from working more high pressure jobs!

 

[memoriesbymichelle]

childbirth as a means to relieve stress???? Are you kidding me? Of course a GUY would say something like this, like you would know hahahahaha!

 

[dayhiker]

Well, Michelle I should have picked a better phrase. I was talking about the love a woman feels for her child when its born. I've read about the hormones that are released in a woman that causes a woman to love her child. Yes, I know about postpartum depression also. ... just shows how few ways we have to release tension. Prayer and meditation can help with tension also.

 

[memoriesbymichelle]

OK I'll give ya that one LOL. I DO remember how in love I was with my children at birth. I even remember it causing me to contemplate that God gives us children so we can kind of know how much He loves us. Because if we think about how much we love our children and God loves us SO MUCH MORE, that maybe that's why we have children, so we can be reminded. I used to cry because I loved my son so much!

 

[dayhiker]

That is really need, Michelle.

 

[TheyCallMeDavid]

What is it about our society that seems to want to make sexual sins the worst sins humanly possible? The one you are going straight to hell for and they erase all of the other aspects about someone's life?

We all sin. Nobody has their entire act together...but in reality, we are all a work in progress. Hopefully, as Christians, we are spending time daily trying to learn how to be more Christ-like in our thoughts and deeds while dealing straight-on with the places we are falling short...both by asking for forgiven and asking for help cleaning the garbage out of our lives.

What I notice is that people come through our forum and are quick to condemn others as going straight to hell because of single belief ... and that usually is a belief about sex ... without even taking time to get to know more of the whole person.

If you see sin, it is perfectly fine to point it out in a gentle loving manner to help get a brother/sister back on the right road...but to see one statement and announce that their salvation is in jeopardy over one perceived sin...well, actually only God has that judgement power.

QUICK ANNOUNCEMENT: Heaven will be full of sinners! God will be the only non-sinner there. The difference is that the ones there will be wearing a covering of God's grace.

John 8:7 (NIV)When they kept on questioning him, he straightened up and said to them, “Let any one of you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her.”

There was only one person who was in a position to throw the first stone...and He didn't. Be careful about throwing stones. God did not call us to beat each other up. He called us to love each other up and through love, help people overcome their weaknesses.


Before you start throwing the stone at the person you perceive as being a sexual deviant...make sure that you are not looking around the log in your own eye. Do you treat EVERYONE in your life with respect and love? ... enemies too? Have you EVER gossiped about someone? etc...



Matthew 7:3-5 (NIV)3 “Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye? 4 How can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when all the time there is a plank in your own eye? 5 You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye.

a. Its because God himself has called out the specific Sin of Sexual Immorality as disqualifying a professed Believer or Unbeliever from heaven. The only way to get around this fact, is to call Gods Word wrong about it.

b. Knowing Someone for any amount of years ... doesn't nullify what God specifically says about unrepentant Sexual Sin. If the person is enslaved to it or any sin for that matter, its up to them to realize it then to want out so they can be restored to God again...because if they continue without repentence and die suddenly.... Gods Word WILL come true in the context of severe regret for the Individual.

c. There is nothing hypocritical of Someone calling out a Lifestyle Sin in another if it is conclusively known to be occurring .... unless the Person calling it out is doing the same thing. In fact, God wants us to notice that, then go to the person to try and help them , which hopefully will lead to repentence and victory.

d. The casting of the first stone passage, is about capital punishment thru stoning for adultery . Christ said what he did to the Stoners because they didn't even try to go to the Adultress to try and help her break free...which would have been the correct Godly thing to do. Instead, they just wanted to pelt her with stones to kill her. Therefore, using this passage to get your point across is invalid because I (for instance) are advocating going to the person to try and help them. Ergo, you have again spoken inaccurately and you should stop with that. Don't make strawman arguments . Its disingenuous and you are accusing falsely. Okee doke ?

e. The fact that Someone has sinned before, isn't an excuse to not go and try to help someone caught in lifestyle sin. In fact, it is very unloving to blow it off. God calls Us for being our Brothers and Sisters Keeper , so do it without rabbit trailing.

 

[memoriesbymichelle]

yeah and nothing was ever mentioned about the MAN the adultress was with. Wasn't he also sinning?

Hey David, please understand that we do not consider you an authority on God's word no matter what you think and most of us don't appreciate you telling us what to do, so if you could kindly refrain from doing that.....that'd be great

 

[Nanopants]

It's a good question. Ofc the Gospels tell us that the only unpardonable offense is blasphemy of the H.S., and Isaiah elaborated on it a bit, I believe, by saying some "call evil good and good evil." Pride would be an underlying factor, since we cannot imagine or invent evil without pridefully exalting ourselves as self-righteous judges who seem to think we know better about what righteousness, good and evil really are. The sin, in my estimation, is unpardonable because to exalt one's self against what is not evil (God) is to fall away or separate one's self from His Being, and the end result is a completely distorted view of morality that doesn't make sense to those who see the absence of empathy, compassion, faithfulness and such in the judgments of those who are quick and strict to punish for lesser faults.

Bearing that in mind, it ought to be clearly understood that Christ was dead serious when He said "Judge not, that you be not judged. For with what judgment you judge, you will be judged; and with the measure you use, it will be measured back to you." (Mat 7:1,2)

 

[TheyCallMeDavid]

yeah and nothing was ever mentioned about the MAN the adultress was with. Wasn't he also sinning?

Hey David, please understand that we do not consider you an authority on God's word no matter what you think and most of us don't appreciate you telling us what to do, so if you could kindly refrain from doing that.....that'd be great

True, nothing was mentioned about the man. So what .

Your subjective opinion is noted , although invalid ; I don't live for the applause of Men and Women --- only God .

You could understand the BIble much much better if you were willing to be a diligent Student of it , and, if you were able to get past your pride from being taught Gods Word .

 

[Lawrencenb]

The word sin is a Greek word that simply means to miss the mark. And according to other scriptures. if you do anything that is not of faith it is also sin and if you know to good and do it not that too is sin. There are no such things as big sin and little sin. Sin is sin and it must be covered in the blood of Christ.

 

[redblue22]

True, nothing was mentioned about the man. So what .

Your subjective opinion is noted , although invalid ; I don't live for the applause of Men and Women --- only God .

You could understand the BIble much much better if you were willing to be a diligent Student of it , and, if you were able to get past your pride from being taught Gods Word .

Perhaps you could give a reason to believe that your opinions are objective and humble? Why should I believe your bible opinions?