Better a Glutton than Gay? Picking and Choosing Our Sins
As Scot McKnight says in The Blue Parakeet, we all pick and choose—the question is which sinner we choose to laugh off and which sinner we choose to condemn.
It is interesting how little time Jesus spent trying to change Roman law to deal with gluttons or homosexuals (both of which seemed to be rampant in Jesus’ day), and how much he focused on things like removing my eye-logs before picking a speck out of my neighbor’s eye.
Would Jesus have reacted differently if the woman caught in adultery had been a man caught in bed with another man? (“He’s a homosexual? Well, that’s different—hand me a stone.”)
We often quote the truism, “Hate the sin, but love the sinner,” but we seldom apply it evenly.
Some sins, my sins, I hate just a little bit.
Your sin I hate a little more.
Other sins, the sins I will never commit, I hate enough that my hate spills out on the sinner, the sinner’s friends and anyone who associates with the sinner.
We say we love the sinner, but we continually do and say things that scream out to the one who commits the unacceptable sins: "You do not belong. You are vile and filthy and not worthy."
If we do not think that is the message we are sending, maybe we should ask the sinner what they think.
Jesus seemed to come from a different angle.
He did not shy away from calling out sin, but He loved sinners so much that religious people often accused him of being a sinner.
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Geoff Surratt, having served Saddleback Church as Pastor of Church Planting and Seacoast Church as Executive Pastor, is now the Director of Exponential. (www.exponential.com) He also works with churches on strategy, structure and vision as a free agent church encourager and catalyst. He has over twenty-nine years of ministry experience in the local church and is the author of several books including The Multisite Church Revolution and 10 Stupid Things that Keep Churches from Growing.
More from Geoff Surratt or visit Geoff at www.geoffsurratt.com
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