A Hidden Sin

A sin unseen

“Get right with God,” the pastor says. “Clean up your language, throw away the pornography, stop taking what doesn’t belong to you.”  We ‘get it’ when talking about lust, greed, theft, and profanity.  That’s all good, for a person filled with the Spirit of God should be holy and honor Him in word and action.  The larger sins, however, are the relational ones.  They often go unseen.

Do you know that Jesus speaks far more about forgiveness, mercy, and love than He does about sexual purity?  But we often reverse that – focusing more on moral purity as evidence of a mature Christianity than on a person’s willingness to pursue a life of authentic love. For example, we may laud a man for his faithful church attendance, hold him up as an example for all because he gives generously and lives uprightly, even while he is unable to sustain a deep relationship with his children or his wife. We do not see his unwillingness to engage himself with his family as a ‘sin.’  As long as he provides for them and brings them to church we think he is a ‘good Christian man.’  A woman who is pure and demure, a picture of wholesomeness, is admired by her Christian friends in spite of the fact that she has no relationship with her mother and has cut herself off from her extended family.  Why this disconnect?  Because, we simply don’t view failure to love as a ‘sin’ problem.  Yet, if we take Jesus’ words at face value, the greater sins are those involving our willingness and/or ability to love!

We cannot gloss over the importance of relational wholeness when we read passages like these.  Jesus said, "If you love each other, everyone will know that you are my disciples." (John 13:35, CEV)  John amplifies the message with this uncompromising statement: "We know that we have passed from death to life, because we love our brothers. Anyone who does not love remains in death." (1 John 3:14, NIV)

Dr. Larry Crabb, in Inside Out, writes “Our Lord severely rebuked the Pharisees for their scrupulous tithing, not because careful adherence to standards is wrong, but rather because they were neglecting more important matters like justice, mercy, and faithfulness (Matthew 23:23), matters that pertain to the way people treat one another.  … The whole purpose of the Law is to point the way towards quality relationships with God and others.”  Crabb describes a common human issue – the desire to protect ourselves.  We hold back from conflict, from costly engagement, from working towards reconciliation because those things hurt us, often wounding our souls. “Better just to leave it alone,” we conclude. In so doing, we fall short of God’s plan, and thus, we sin!

The price of real love always involves pain. Only when we are secured by the love of God, shown to us in Christ Jesus, is it possible for us to abandon ourselves to pursue radical life of love that marks the authentic Christian. The Bible simply says, "And so we know and rely on the love God has for us. God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in him. In this way, love is made complete among us so that we will have confidence on the day of judgment, because in this world we are like him. There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love. We love because he first loved us. If anyone says, “I love God,” yet hates his brother, he is a liar. For anyone who does not love his brother, whom he has seen, cannot love God, whom he has not seen. And he has given us this command: Whoever loves God must also love his brother. Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God, and everyone who loves the father loves his child as well." (1 John 4:16-5:1, NIV)

The choice to live in love is not easy, nor is it simple.  If we think it is, we have confused mere affection or politeness with the real deal!  Love demands release of our desires to live for others first. Love dethrones ego and causes us to be content to serve God and people without recognition or thanks. Love abandons self-protection and goes out to be involved in the world where it lives.  Can you see now, why this kind of love is impossible to show without the Spirit working deeply in us?

Here’s a word from the Word. May the truth challenge us to live a life of love, so that Jesus may be seen in us, and so that we will know the greatest joy that is possible for us.
"Love never gives up. Love cares more for others than for self. Love doesn’t want what it doesn’t have. Love doesn’t strut, Doesn’t have a swelled head, Doesn’t force itself on others, Isn’t always “me first,” Doesn’t fly off the handle, Doesn’t keep score of the sins of others, Doesn’t revel when others grovel, Takes pleasure in the flowering of truth, Puts up with anything, Trusts God always, Always looks for the best, Never looks back, But keeps going to the end." (1 Corinthians 13:4-7, The Message)  "But for right now, until that completeness, we have three things to do to lead us toward that consummation: Trust steadily in God, hope unswervingly, love extravagantly. And the best of the three is love." (1 Corinthians 13:13, The Message)

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