We've recently been challenged to think about what we label mistakes or poor choices and identify sin....
I've been in church, reading my Bible etc but still lately I've slipped back into using profanity. I asked a question --- Doesn't the Bible specify that taking the Lord's name in vain is the sin and beyond that it is a charater flaw, not a sin?
I was told that profanity is a sin and that it is based on culture and what is acceptable or not in our culture that defines it...so the "f" word in europe is perfectly acceptable and not vulgar, but here it is not... same application to hand gestures.
Do you agree? Do you believe that culture can define sin?
I am still not sure if I do (but maybe I'm trying to justify my own actions?) I didn't think I was, I thought I had this "figured out". Now I am confused!
I need analytical process people who know the Word to help me with one (Shakedust/Golden) :)
I think you may be my only readers at this point ... but I would still call you out! lol
Help! thoughts?
2 comments:
I love it when people ask my perspective on a question about Scripture! Thanks! However, Talk about a loaded question!
Regarding language, what's right and wrong is always going to be culturally defined. The words matter a lot less than what's behind them. Jesus said, "raca," in his explanation about the hate that underlies people's language (Matt 5:21-22), and he wasn't sinning for using the word. He was indicating that most who used that word (and the words for, "you fool") were sinning because of what drove that language, however.
Sin is better understood as a state rather than a series of acts. So, when you act in sin what makes it sin is that it is that the action is coming from place of a lack of faith. If you are living in faith the mistakes you make are not technically sins because they are still covered by Christ's blood. However, if you are not living in faith, even the things that you might not consider sins are sin.
So, for example, when near the end of Galatians 5 we see descriptions of the acts of the flesh and the fruit of the Spirit, this is not an instruction to do one and avoid the other. It's not that doing one is sin and doing another is not sin. This is a litmus test for whether you are living a life of faith. If we simply don't do the things in the list about the acts of the flesh and do the things in the list of the fruit of the Spirit, but we don't have a life of faith, our entire lives are still sin.
More on topic, when Paul writes in Colossians 3:8 that the church is supposed to stop doing specific things (including using "filthy language" in the NIV), the reasoning is not that these things are "sin" in the sense that doing them makes you a sinner. He's writing to people in the church who are already saved (3:9-10). Rather, these things that the church understood were the markers of a sinful life, and needed to ultimately be destroyed (3:5-7) through the process of sanctification.
So, is using salty language sin? This is going to sound like Eternal Security, but it isn't. For the unsaved, everything they do is sin, so in that case yes. For the saved, all of the mistakes they make are covered by Christ's blood, so in a sense nothing they do is sin.
This is not an excuse to do whatever we want. The way we make our election sure is by living a life of faith, goodness, knowledge, self-control, perseverance, godliness, mutual affection, and love (2 Pet 1:5-11). Ergo, living a life where we do whatever our flesh wants takes us in the opposite direction of making our election sure.
I am going to have to think about what shakedust just said. I agree with it is what is behind the words that count. If teens cuss out of rebellious hearts then that is sin.
I struggled with profanity when I was in a workplace that I heard it constantly. I have found that those choice words come out of me when I haven't had enough sleep or are stressed about something. There is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus!!
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