Can you tweet the Gospel?

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Updates at the bottom.

Can you tweet the Gospel?

Maybe we should give it a try. You know, we tell everyone about our dental appointments on Facebook and Twitter, we talk about our latest accomplishments on Gang Wars, we complain about work, we flirt, we converse, and most of us never mention the one who saved us from our sins.

So here’s the idea. On December 24 (Christmas Eve), we post the Gospel. It will only take a minute. You can do it while your spouse is in the shower, while dinner is being cooked, whenever. Whenever you have a minute, post it. If you have a minute later in the day, post it again. How many friends do you have on these sites? That’s potentially how many people will read the Gospel this Christmas.

That simple? Pretty much, but there are a couple of things you can do to help spread the word.

1) TELL YOUR CHRISTIAN FRIENDS ABOUT IT. Use that same Facebook or Twitter account to spread the news about this effort. What I plan to do is to put a link to this post up with a brief explanation of what is going to happen. “Join us in Tweeting the Gospel Dec 24. Click for details.” It could be that simple.

2) KEEP TELLING YOUR FRIENDS ABOUT IT. Repeat the post, send messages, remind them of the date. A lot of us will want to participate, but will forget during the Christmas rush.

3) MAKE SURE YOU KNOW THE GOSPEL. Do you know why we need a Savior? Do you know why Jesus died on the Cross? Do you know why it is important to repent and believe?

Jesus didn’t come to earth to make you rich. He didn’t come to fix your marriage. He didn’t come to give you purpose. He came to solve a terrible problem. The problem is that God is just, good, and righteous. And you aren’t.

We so often compare ourselves with those around us and assume we’re doing okay. There are murderers and thieves out there, and at least you’re not like that. You think of yourself as a good person. You aren’t too worried about the judgment of God, because God is good, and so you think that He’ll see that you’re okay as well.

Or maybe you’re active in the community or the church, and you see yourself as very spiritual and righteous. You do all of the right things, and you believe God will reward you for that.

Or maybe you’ll admit that you’ve made some mistakes, but you’ve always heard that God is good and loving, and so you think you’ll be alright.

Well, God is loving, and He is good. But you are not, and He’s going to have to do something about you.

God’s standard is not like ours. He is righteous and holy, and no sin is acceptable in His sight. He does not grade on a curve. He will judge us even by our thoughts.

Think about that. Maybe outwardly you’re better than average, but what are your thoughts like? Are they filled with blasphemy, lust, pride, greed, selfishness, hatred, and covetousness? What is God going to think of that?

If an admitted murderer tells his judge, “Judge, you are a good man, so I believe you are going to let me go free,” what would the judge say? If the judge IS a good judge, then he’s going to punish the murderer. Why do you think that God, in His goodness, will ignore your crimes against Him? In truth, we have offended God in our sins, and we continue to do so.

But God is a forgiving God, and He is a loving God. He desires to restore our relationship with Himself, but He must first deal with our sin. That is why Jesus came to die. Jesus took our place in death so that we may live. Jesus took our punishment for our sins so we would not have to suffer that punishment.

It is not something we can earn. We’ve already failed to earn salvation. But God, in His love, gives us life freely.

It is not for everyone. In our sin we are rebelling against God. Some people, continuing in that rebellion, reject Jesus and continue to rely on themselves. They do not recognize that they need a savior, or they look to some false god to save them rather than Jesus.

For some, however, the understanding of their own sin burdens their hearts, and they understand too well that they need someone to save them. They see that they cannot make it alone. For those people, God offers the forgiveness of sin through repentance and belief in Jesus.

This is our only way to eternal life. Jesus did not die to simply create another possible way to heaven. He did it because it is the only way. We all owe a price, and He paid that price for us.

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Now, all of that is a little long for Twitter. No worries – we have about a month before Christmas to get some options. We’re going to be updating this post in the next month with some possible tweets that we can use when the day comes. If you have ideas, please post them as comments below. (I am moderating the comments, of course, for those of you who want to slip in another gospel.)

Come back soon for some updates. In the meantime, please be praying for this day, that God will use it for His glory and to advance His kingdom. God bless!

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UPDATES: Gospel presentations under 140 characters!

God is good. You aren’t. But in love He sent His Son to die in your place. If you repent and believe in Him, you will be saved!

What is in your heart? Is it lust, pride, & hatred? In love, Jesus came to die for those sins. Repent and believe to be saved!

Podcast: 1 John: The Nature of Love

This is a transcript of one of our recent podcasts. To subscribe to the podcast using iTunes, please click here. To listen to the podcast without iTunes, please follow this link.

And by this we know that we have come to know him, if we keep his commandments. Whoever says “I know him” but does not keep his commandments is a liar, and the truth is not in him, but whoever keeps his word, in him truly the love of God is perfected. By this we may know that we are in him: whoever says he abides in him ought to walk in the same way in which he walked.
-1 John 2:3-6

Would it seem strange to you if I told you that I wanted to go see my grandmother? Would you give me a weird look and ask, “Why?” Probably not. Or even if you did, I would just answer, “Because I love her,” and all would be explained.

That wouldn’t seem so strange to us. What perhaps would seem strange is if I claimed to love my grandmother, and yet never had the slightest desire to even speak with her. If that were the case, you’d probably start questioning me.

I think we have conflicting definitions of love in our brains. In many ways, love is just something we claim. It doesn’t seem to have any meaning. If you ask the normal person, that person will probably say, “Sure, I love God.” But it’s just a word to be claimed. It doesn’t have any teeth to it.

In real life, this use of the word love looks a little odd. We would question the love a man has for his grandmother if he keeps avoiding her calls. We would question the love a man has for his kids if he refused to spend time with them.

But let’s get things straight here – the love produces the action, and not the other way around. Let’s pretend I said to someone, “Man, I have to ask you about your supposed love for your kids. You never spend time with them!”

If that man replied, “Fine, I’ll spend more time with them!”, we wouldn’t be more confident in his love. See, you can spend time with your kids from obligation as easily as you could from love.

Which brings us to 1 John. John has been differentiating between walking in the light and walking in darkness. Walking in the light is walking with Christ, and remaining the darkness is remaining in sin. But He has made it clear that we don’t get into the light by being perfect, because no one is, but because of the grace of God. It is by the Blood of Jesus, who is our advocate with the Father, that we can be in the light.

That eternal life is something we do not deserve. In our sin we deserve death. We have offended God with our lies, lusts, ambition, stealing, adultery, selfishness, and pride. Being just as He is, God must demand punishment for those sins. That is the only right thing to do. But in love, Jesus came to earth to take our punishment for us when He died on the Cross. He has paid our way so that we can walk in the light, even though we deserve to be in the darkness.

So the question John now tries to answer is this – “How do I know if I’m walking in the light?” And the answer is a simple one – “If you obey the commandments.”

But didn’t John just tell us that we have all sinned? Yes. But now we have to be perfect? No, because at the beginning of the chapter, John tells us that Jesus remains our advocate, even if we sin again. So what’s going on here?

What happens is that something changes us when we know Him. When we are saved, God, as Ezekiel put it, gives us a new spirit. He will remove the heart of stone and give us a heart of flesh.

It’s like what we were talking about with love. Can you love your grandmother and not care about what’s going on with her? Can you love your kids and not want to spend time with them? In the same way, you cannot know God and not follow Him.

We will still sin. John spoke of that in the previous two verses. We are not talking about a perfect walk here. We’re talking about a change. Are you less interested in sin now? Do you have a desire to read the Bible? Have you stopped sleeping through the sermon at church? Do you have a fading interest in worldly things while your interest in spiritual ones is growing?

If you said no, the answer isn’t for you to try harder. The problem is not your actions, but your relationship. Sanctification is the process in which the Holy Spirit begins to conform you to the image of Jesus, but it doesn’t work if you don’t have the Spirit. You cannot force yourself down that road.

The problem isn’t that you just don’t want it bad enough. The problem is that you need Jesus.

I cannot stress this enough. I could feel guilty for not speaking to my grandmother more, so I might force myself to call every day for a month. But does this mean I love her more? In the same way, we may try to be better people out of guilt, but does that mean we really know Jesus? No.

Test yourself by this standard. I know a lot of churches out there tell you never to question your salvation. This is a lie born out of the pit of Hell. This is a scheme of the devil to tell lost people to not worry about really knowing Jesus. The Bible tells us to test ourselves. 2 Corinthians 13:5 tells us, “Examine yourselves, to see whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves. Or do you not realize this about yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you? – unless indeed you fail to meet the test!”

John here is telling us to do the same thing. There are so many of us who had an emotional experience at church camp and now think that we are Christians. Test yourself. Look back on your life. Was there a change there? Was there something that happened in your life that could not have been anything but the power of God?

Ask God for the wisdom to know. Seek His counsel in this. And when you find those places in your life that have not been touched by Him, fall upon your knees and repent of them. You may find that you have never truly experienced Jesus. Repent and believe! We have all fallen short of the glory of God, but by the Blood of Jesus we may be judged righteous on the Day of Judgment.

And on that day, those of us in Christ will find that His love in us has been perfected. At last we will be conformed to His image, and there will be no more need for tears or pain.

Podcast: 1 John: Our Great Lawyer in the Sky

This is a transcript of one of our recent podcasts. To subscribe to the podcast using iTunes, please click here. To listen to the podcast without iTunes, please follow this link.

My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. He is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world.
-1 John 2:1-2

I’ve spent a lot of time in court. Not on my own cases, but as a court clerk for several years. It was a misdemeanor court, and I saw literally thousands of people charged with crimes go in and out of that courtroom. Some charges were just dismissed, others pled out. A small portion of these cases went to trial.

You know, it’s sometimes our impression from watching the news and hearing about cases that the defense attorney is really the deciding factor in a case. If you can afford a good enough defense, you’ll beat the charges.

It’s not supposed to happen like this, and it usually doesn’t. Of course, it sometimes does. What’s supposed to happen is that everyone will get a fair trial no matter who is sitting beside that person, and the verdict will be rendered according to the evidence. But then, some lawyers are very persuasive, while others can’t seem to hold a sentence together. Some lawyers work really hard to examine the evidence and test the case against the defendant, and others are just there to get paid. It happens, but I don’t think anyone likes it that it happens.

But in truth, this is sort of what happens with God. When we get to Judgment Day, a lot is going to depend on our defense attorney.

John does not want us to sin. He wants us to be good people who don’t mess up. Most of us want this for ourselves too. But John knows something that most of us won’t admit. We are sinners.

Oh, sure, most people will admit to making a mistake here or there, but the truth of the matter is much more severe than that. The previous chapter tells us something about the meaning behind sin. Verse 6 tells us that “If we say we have fellowship with him while we walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth.” We haven’t gotten this far yet, but verse six of chapter two tells us that “whoever says he abides in him ought to walk in the same way in which he walked.”

John will continually tell us how someone who walks with the Lord will act. He makes it very clear that if we sin, which is disobedience, we are not walking with Jesus.

This is what is really happening in sin. We are turning from God and racing back into the darkness for sex, money, power, prestige, or just a little entertainment. We are betraying the only true God, Creator of all things, and racing away for something far less wonderful.

In sin, we are betraying God.

Listen, we are all going to stand before His throne and give an account for our lives. We will have to give an account for every sin. They will be stacked against us, countless ones of them! How many times, even just today, have we turned from God, betrayed God, for something else? We will have to answer for that.

But in Christ, we have an advocate. We have an attorney, so to speak.

Now, it is not the slickness of this attorney that will free us. It is not that He is good at public speaking and can sway the Judge. No, God does not show partiality (Romans 2:11). Our defense attorney doesn’t have any sort of trick to get the evidence thrown out. No, it will all still be there. Our defense attorney is different.

Our defense attorney comes in and says, in essence, “Yes. Yes, Paul Lytle is guilty. Yes, he deserves to die. By his sins he has earned that punishment. But it is a punishment that I have already paid, and this one belongs to me.”

See, Jesus lived a perfect life. He did not deserve to die, but he died anyway. In that death He paid the price for our sins. In love He took our place in death. In repentance and faith we can be given life when we deserve death because of Jesus’ sacrifice.

It is not that Jesus manipulates the court to get us a “not guilty” sentence. It is that we are guilty, but that the punishment has already been paid.

That is what the word “propitiation” means. It means that Jesus substituted Himself in our place to satisfy the wrath of a vengeful God. He was the substitutionary atonement for us. He took our place in death so that we may live.

We have to wonder now if everyone is forgiven. After all, it says that Jesus died for the “whole world” here. This is not a universal statement by John, that every single person in the world will be forgiven. Let’s look at the context. Only three verses before he tells us exactly who will be forgiven – those who confess their sins.

So for whom was Jesus a propitiation, if not literally “the whole world”? This is very hotly debated, whether Jesus died for everyone, and we can choose whether to accept or reject Him, or whether he died for those people who would be saved. I fall into the latter camp. I believe Jesus died for those God chose to be saved. God willing, I may try to discuss this in more detail in an upcoming episode. For now, let me point out that when John uses the word “world,” he is usually talking about races and nations. He is countering here the notion that only Jews can be saved. This was very big issue at the time, and so John constantly reminds people that Jesus didn’t just die for “us,” meaning the Jews, but for Gentiles too.

This is the only reading that makes sense, because the other alternative is to think that the “us” means Christians. In other words, you don’t have to be a Christian to be saved, which contradicts all of John’s other writings, where he states plainly that Jesus is the only way to salvation. No, he is talking about racial and social lines here, not religious ones.

Now, let’s go back to the first part of this section. “My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin.” A lot of people tie this back to the previous chapter and John’s discussion on God’s holiness as the light. I don’t agree. I believe John is tying this to the main force of the chapter, and that is the forgiveness of sins by the Blood of Jesus. The incarnation of Christ is described in the first three verses, and then both verses 7 and 9 speak of the good news of the gospel directly. Literally half the first chapter is dedicated to Jesus and the forgiveness of sins.

And the gospel is about the forgiveness of sins. He has told us that we are all sinners and need Jesus, so don’t sin, but when you do, Jesus will take care of it. Why insert that part about not sinning?

Because the gospel is going to change us. Look at this. John tells us that he is writing about the forgiveness of sins so that we will not sin. He is talking about that transfer from darkness to light that comes in repentance and forgiveness.

By the Blood of Christ, we are drawn into the light, where we need not sin again. That change in us from wretched sinners to children of God is what allows us not to sin. You don’t want to sin? Well, John is telling you about the gospel so you don’t have to. It can’t be done by your own will (John has already said that no one can claim to be without sin), but it can be done with God’s transforming Spirit.

When we repent and are filled with the Spirit, we will turn from sin and focus more on Christ. It doesn’t mean we won’t mess up. We will. But we have an advocate with the Father in Jesus when we do. But that change will refocus us on His path, not our old sinful one. This isn’t a battle you can win, so John is telling you about the One who can win it for you.

How do we react to criticism?

“and you say [on your deathbed], ‘How I hated discipline, and my heart despised reproof!’”
-Proverbs 5:12

This is my fear for our generation.

This is my real fear, that we will find ourselves upon our deathbed, wondering why we were so proud as to not take correction.

Or worse still, that we will find ourselves before the Lord on the Day of Judgment, wondering why we didn’t listen to those who were trying to point us in the right direction.

We have this idea in modern America that I am the one who decides what is right for me, and that no one can say anything otherwise. We tell each other this all the time. We say, “Don’t judge me!” over the slightest criticism. We hang out with people who will defend us no matter what, even when we are wrong, as though it is a virtue to ignore the evil things we do.

We have so completely been sold on this “virtue” of individuality that we have forgotten what true virtue is. We have marches celebrating terrible sin. We legislate “rights” to do whatever we want, and then complain when someone frowns on our behavior.

I would agree that a lot of this frowning misses the point. A lot of it is just self-righteousness spewing out. But I tell you the truth – love will correct when needed. Love steps in when needed.

The parents who refuse to punish their children are not loving parents. No, love will punish a child when the child needs punishment. The friend who sits by and lets someone sleep with everyone he meets isn’t a good friend. Love will sometimes say, “Hey, this is destructive behavior.”

We don’t want love in this country. Not really. We want license. We want people to tell us that we are doing fantastic, that everything we try is perfectly fine.

It’s not.

And if we are lucky, when we reflect on our lives upon our deathbeds, we will realize how far astray we have gone.

We have spent our lives in pursuit of lust, greed, ambition, pride, hatred, and selfishness. We have put all our efforts into those things instead of love. And when love does come and try to correct us, we scold it and throw it aside. All it does is get in the way of our fun.

It is my prayer that we will realize how bad we have made things because of sin before we die. It is my prayer that we will realize, turn our eyes to Jesus, and repent of those evils we have done. We will believe in Him and His death upon the Cross, how He took the punishment for our sins there. We will believe that because of His finished work, we will be saved, not because of our own good works.

It is my prayer that this will happen. My fear is that we will go into death, still seeking license rather than love. If so, all we will find in death is justice. And that’s not something we really want.

Don’t wait for a deathbed confession

“and at the end of your life you groan, when your flesh and body are consumed,”
-Proverbs 5:11

You’re going to die. I can say that with almost 100% certainty. Now, I’ll allow for the possibility of Jesus’ return before that happens, which is why I’m not quite ready to say 100%, but I am almost certain of your eventual death.

You know it too. You may not want to think about it or acknowledge it, but you know. Maybe you’re a little closer than you would like. Maybe it’s so far off that it never crosses your mind.

Sometimes I think about it, but not too often. I’m not in great shape, so it crosses my mind that I may be facing an earlier than desired death, but I’m also in better shape than I’ve been since I was a teenager, so it seems like I may be pushing it out some.

Of course, the truth is for all of us that we could get run over tomorrow. We could go to sleep tonight and not wake up in the morning. Perhaps these things are unlikely, but they are not impossible.

Solomon is doing something interesting here. He is telling his sons to not go in to the forbidden woman, sometimes known as the adulterous woman. He has listed a couple of reasons for that – spiritual standing with God, your reputation amongst men, and possible determents to prosperity.

But here he begins a new reason, one that is all too true, and yet so rarely heeded. Don’t chase after sinful pleasure, because you’re going to die someday.

And this is the ultimate reason. Look, you could commit all the sins of the world and still prosper and still have a good reputation. You could get away with it, but then you’re going to die. And that may not be far off. It may be tonight.

We will all die, and we will face judgment. God will judge us according to our thoughts, words, and deeds. That’s right. It’s not just about doing the right thing, it’s about THINKING the right thing too. We will be held accountable for every sin.

And the wages of sin is death. Not just the physical death that we will all encounter, but an eternal death in hell.

Solomon is telling his sons to consider where they stand with God now in preparation for that day. Don’t put it off, thinking you can worry about it tomorrow. We may not have one.

One that day, it’s not going to be about how good we are. Let’s face it, we all at least thought an evil thought, which is enough to get us tossed into hell forever. Most of us have acted on those thoughts occasionally. It’s going to be able who we have with us.

In His death on the Cross, Jesus took upon Himself our sins. He paid the price that we owe. If we repent and believe in Him, He will be our advocate with the Father. If we reject Him, we will stand before the Father on our own.

It’s so easy to wait until tomorrow. You may end up on your deathbed, desperately trying to figure out where you went wrong. Worse still, maybe you won’t even consider it then.

The money pit

[Avoid the forbidden woman] “lest strangers take their fill of your strength, and your labors go to the house of a foreigner,”
-Proverbs 5:10

When I worked in the court system, I came across the case of a man who was arrested for violation of a protective order. He was divorced from his wife, and due to various circumstances (some his fault, and some beyond his control), a protective order was granted against him. He was no longer allowed to see his children. He was broke and could not pay child support, but he did find a little money to buy some cloths for his kids. He left them on the doorstep of his ex-wife’s house while no one was home and left.

And he was arrested for violating that order.

I don’t know the full story. Maybe something else happened to suggest that he would be a danger to the kids. I don’t even know what caused the divorce, but I spoke with him some, and I felt sorry for him. I believe that he was really just trying to do something nice for his kids, knowing that he probably wouldn’t be allowed to see them for years. What he told me was that he just wanted to remind them that he was thinking of them, and that he loved them.

So many of our problems in life can be traced back to one point in time, one decision. Usually, it’s our own doing as well. This verse speaks of the consequences of adultery. How much has been lost over that particular sin? How many families destroyed? Not many of them end up in such a terrible situation as the man I met at the courthouse, but how many are today trying to schedule weekends with their kids because of that one moment?

How many people are sending money to an ex every month because of adultery? How many are paying child support because of adultery?

It’s not just adultery that can ruin us either. Any sin has the power to do it. It doesn’t always happen (some sinners flourish), but sin has a way of bringing us to ruin. Pride will cause us to overextend our bank accounts. Selfishness will drive off those who love us. Sex outside of marriage has ruined many people’s lofty dreams when the reality of a pregnancy brings them down to earth. Lying can ruin the trust of your customers. Stealing can land you in jail, without much hope of getting a good job when you are released.

Solomon is telling his sons to stay moral for two reasons. In this section, he is reminding his sons that acting morally will keep you from these traps that will destroy your bank account, reputation, and health.

It doesn’t always happen like this, of course, but it does enough. I can tell you of many people who have been ruined over adultery. I can’t tell you about any who have been ruined by faithfulness.

The other reason Solomon gives to his sons for moral living in a spiritual one, mainly addressed in verse 5 of this chapter.

And this, to me, is the far more important one. After all, the Christian life could quite possibly lead you to prosperity and a healthy life. It could just as easily lead you to a martyr’s death in the Middle East. The Proverbs often give us truisms that are usually true, but not always. This is very important to remember when reading them – they are guides, but not always promises.

And yet, when we are in Christ, the end will always be the same, whether we are gunned down by Muslim extremists or die of old age surrounded by family – eternity with God.

It is not something we can earn of ourselves. God is holy and just, and we have fallen far short of his glory. Maybe it is with an adulterous woman. Maybe it is simple pride that is eating away at us. Whatever it is, we have been overcome with sin. But in the death of Jesus we can be forgiven. He took the punishment for us.

By all means, try to avoid sin. Try to live righteously. But when you fail, repent and believe in Him that you may live. Maybe it’s too late for you to avoid the forbidden woman. It’s not too late to deal with the next life.

Podcast: 1 John: A Bunch of Sinners Are We

This is a transcript of one of our recent podcasts. To subscribe to the podcast using iTunes, please click here. To listen to the podcast without iTunes, please follow this link.

If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.
-1 John 1:8-10

Welcome to the Christian Pilgrimage Podcast; I’m your host, Paul Lytle. Today, we’re going to finish up the first chapter of 1 John in “A Bunch of Sinners are We.”

When I read these verses, I immediately thought of an episode of the Waltons that I recently watched. Now, I mention this at the risk of exposing exactly how completely irrelevant and unhip I really am. I mean, my grandmother is probably thrilled that I mentioned the Waltons, but the rest of you are wondering what in the world that is. Well, if you don’t know, it was a family show in the 70s about a family in Virginia during the Depression.

In this one particular episode, an evangelist comes to town, and the mother of the family takes everyone to the church to try to get them all saved. The evangelist tells everyone that they are sinners and are going to hell. This brings up the real conflict in the show, because the members of the family who are not Christian are rather offended. “We’re not sinners!” they say, and the mother agrees with them. “You’re not a sinner,” she says, “but you need to make Jesus your Savior.”

Which didn’t make much sense to me. A Savior? A Savior from what?

Most people do not see themselves as sinners. Most people think they are doing okay. A lot of churches have catered to this. Some of them won’t mention sin at all. Others reserve that word for an abstract group of people. Racist are sinners, or imperialists are sinners. But they don’t ever apply it to anyone specifically.

John wants us to apply it. He wants us to understand it. He wants us to know that we are in that category. If you deny it, he says, then you are lying to ourselves. Lying, by the way, is a sin.

Furthermore, he says, God says you are a sinner, so if you deny that you are one, then you are saying that God is lying, which He cannot do.

So, as I’m reading our passage for today, I thought I might do a little test. I’m going to find some sins from the Bible and see how I measure up to them. 2 Corinthians 12:20 lists some for me. Let’s just go through the list here. Quarreling? Check. Jealousy? Yes. Anger? Uh-huh. Hostility? Yeah. Slander? Goodness, aren’t there any big ones here so I can say no to one of them? Gossip? Oh, yes. Conceit? Duh. Disorder? Wait a minute, what is this list? Let me take a look here. Oh. This is the stuff Paul is finding in the church itself.

Okay, forget that one. Let’s get to the big stuff. Murder and adultery. You always see in the Bible that murder and adultery is wrong, and I at least haven’t done those! Oh, wait. Jesus says in Matthew 5 that if you look at a woman with lust in your heart, that you’ve committed adultery; and if you insult someone else, you’ll be held accountable to the same judgment.

Well, these are minor things, right? I mean, a little lust, a little anger, no big deal. Let me turn to Matthew 22, because it is here that Jesus summarizes the entire Law into two points. So if we can get these two points, we’ll be okay. Let me read here: “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.”

Love God with your whole being and love others as yourself? I can’t do that! I mean, even if I tried, I can’t live up to that. And I’m a Christian! I’m a Christian, and I can’t live up to this standard.

I’ve sort of had some fun with this, but we should consider this a minute. It is our instinct just to dismiss this because it’s impossible. We look around and think, Well, I’m doing okay compared to everyone else. We look at the news and see stories about murderers and rapists and swindlers, and we think, Maybe I’m better than the average.

I think we have it in our head that God is going to grade on a curve. He’s going to say, “Okay, no one passed the test, so I’m going to add twenty points to everyone’s grade.”

But here’s the truth, as Paul says in Romans 3: “None is righteous, no, not one; no one understands; no one seeks for God. All have turned aside; together they have become worthless; no one does good, not even one. Their throat is an open grave; they use their tongues to deceive. The venom of asps is under their lips. Their mouth is full of curses and bitterness. Their feet are swift to shed blood; in their paths are ruin and misery, and the way of peace they have not known. There is no fear of God before their eyes.”

We were made to love God with all our hearts, and instead we chase after sex, money, power, and toys. We were made to love one another as ourselves, but we spend our time seeking our own good. We have insulted our Creator, the just and righteous God, with our thoughts, words, and deeds. None of us are worthy of Heaven, and to just blow it off and decide that God is going to grade on a curve is further insult to a Holy God. He created you, you have rejected Him, and so you decide that He has to accept you, as though you were the creator rather than He?

Imagine if a child had this attitude toward his parents? What if this child said to his parents, “No, I didn’t do what you wanted me to do. But what are you going to do about it? You really should be giving me presents rather than scolding me.” The only right way to deal with such a kid is to get a belt and punish him!

Why do we think of God as somehow less just than that? Why do we think we should be rewarded for our rebellion with Heaven? The truth is, we have all earned Hell.

But let’s turn back to John’s words here. “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”

Let me explain this. We owe a debt because of the sins we have committed against God. We deserve a punishment of death. All of us deserve this. But God loves us so much that He sent Jesus to earth. He lived a perfect life, but was killed upon a Cross, even though he didn’t deserve it. In that death, He took the punishment we deserve upon Himself. He also clothes us in His righteousness so that we may be able to stand before the Father blameless.

Now, we can either continue our rebellion against God and turn away from this sacrifice, or we can repent of our sins, believe in Him, and be granted forgiveness.

We cannot earn this sacrifice. But in love, God offers it freely to us. So it is true that none of us are without sin, but if we are in Christ, we will be judged blameless on the Day of Judgment.

The mother in that Waltons episode was wrong in one point. She had a family full of sinners. But she was right in the other, and that is that they needed Jesus to save them. Because I have a Savior, I am not ashamed to confess that I am a sinner. I am a terrible sinner who deserves death. But by the Blood of Jesus, I will have life. Let’s pray.

The truth behind the death penalty

“[Avoid the forbidden woman,] lest you give your honor to others and your years to the merciless,”
-Proverbs 5:9

A lot of people would describe the moral laws of the Bible to be rather restrictive. Adultery was a capital offense, as was being caught in premarital sex. We moderns would likely scoff at such laws as primitive and unenlightened.

We may likewise laugh at verses like this, that talk about losing honor because of sexual sin. Perhaps this is a part of that old system that does not really apply today.

Surely we would agree that this remains partially true. I mean, some people get nervous about sex, and do not want their bedroom activities to come to light. Maybe they would consider some honor lost, depending on what becomes public. If you are caught cheating on your wife, certainly you’re going to run into some trouble there. In very rare cases, there are diseases, unwanted pregnancy, or something of the like associated with sex. But then again, most of those diseases are curable, and our enlightened society can take care of an unwanted pregnancy too.

So our enlightened society may dismiss this verse as speaking to something that is gone now. Even some churches would say that, saying that these laws belong to an older time, but that we are in a dispensation of grace now.

But here’s the thing about God’s Law as revealed in the Word. Whether or not our nation recognizes these penalties, they reflect something of God’s eternal truth. Premarital sex is not even a crime anymore in America, but with God, it still is.

And God is careful to explain to us that the wages of sin is death. No sin can be forgiven without the spilling of blood. The severity of punishment in the Law is a reflection of God’s just and holy nature, and His reaction to our rebellion against His righteousness. We can try to dismiss our own sin away if we like, but when we engage in sexual sin when He tells us not to, then we are rebelling again a perfect and righteous God. This is a crime against His holiness, and it must be punished.

So this Law given in the Bible not as the practices of an unenlightened culture, but as the expectations of a perfect God. If we don’t see the sense in them, it is because WE are unenlightened, not Him.

And His Law goes right down to our hearts. Jesus tells us that if we look at another person with lust in our hearts, then we are guilty of adultery. So it’s not even about remaining a virgin until you’re married, but also keeping your imagination pure too.

We so quickly dismiss sin in this culture, but in truth, we are without excuse. We deserve death for what we have thought, said, and done. There is nothing we can do to earn eternal life. We have already lost it by our own actions.

But God is a God who saves. God is a God of love. He is just, yes. He is righteous and holy. But He also does not want to see us in death. To solve this, He sent His only Son, Jesus, to earth. He lived a perfect life, utterly free from sin, and died upon a Roman Cross. In that death He took upon Himself the sins He did not commit – our sins. He paid the price for them, sating God’s wrath against us.

We all deserve death. There is no way we can be good enough for heaven. But if we repent and believe in Him, we will find life.

On sexual sin

“Keep your way far from her [the forbidden woman], and do not go near the door of her house,”
-Proverbs 5:8

Quite often, my wife and I will watch movies or television shows in the evenings. We were both real lovers of movies before marriage, and so, naturally, that part of our single lives have carried over into the marriage.

Not all of these movies are what you might call family friendly, but my wife always insists that we either skip sex scenes or at least turn away.

It’s not something I did when single. I used to be perhaps more tempted with sex than I am now (though I certainly have not conquered the sin of lust), and when God confronted me on this problem, I got rid of a lot of movies that I felt were just over the top with sexual content. But I didn’t get rid of every single movie that had a sex scene in it, and I really didn’t think about it much when watching. It’s just something that is in movies.

I am tremendously thankful to my wife for making me more uncomfortable with those scenes.

In our culture, we often ignore sexual sin, often to the point where we deny it is a sin. Sure, the extreme sexual sins will still be considered sins, but what about premarital sex? What about looking at a woman in lust? What about pornography?

Sex has become an idol to us in this culture. We worship it when we go out to bars to pick up women, when we scheme to try to make someone like us, when we turn on our computers to look at naked women. It has become a god to America, so much so that more than a million babies every year are sacrificed for the cause of sex without consequences.

We sometimes see God as a spoilsport who is trying to ruin our fun by His rules on sex. That’s not really what is going on. God does have rules regarding sex, but it is because there is something else going on with sex than perhaps we know.

When we hate someone, Jesus tells us, it is as though we have committed murder. There is something going on there on a spiritual level that we don’t realize at the time. We are separating ourselves in sin from the greatest good in the universe, which is God. We are choosing our anger over Him. It is like that with sexual sin. There is a spiritual connection made with your partner that was not meant to be shared with any woman at a bar. It was meant for one person, for life. And when we put our lusts before that one person and before God, we have made a spiritual decision to make an idol of our lust instead of worshipping God.

Sex is not a bad thing. God created it not just for procreation, but for enjoyment. But He made it to be used in love with your spouse, to share a spiritual oneness that is supposed to reflect the love that Christ has for His Church.

If I even look at a woman with lust in my heart, then I have put something in the place of that wondrous and God-given relationship and love.

I can’t even remember how many times I messed up in this way. In God’s mercy, He delivered me to a loving wife despite myself. This too is a reflection of Christ’s love for the Church. While we were yet sinners, He died on our behalf, paying the price for all of those sins, including the sexual ones. He purifies us in that Blood and places His righteousness upon us. In repentance and belief in Him, we can be cleansed.

If left to myself, I never could have made up for the sins of my past. But in His love, like the love of a husband to a wife, He has forgiven me.

Podcast: 1 John: Walking in the Light

This is a transcript of one of our recent podcasts. To subscribe to the podcast using iTunes, please click here. To listen to the podcast without iTunes, please follow this link.

This is the message we have heard from him and proclaim to you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all. If we say we have fellowship with him while we walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin.
-1 John 1:5-7

John has jumped right into some pretty interesting ideas very early in his letter. We should first remind ourselves of what has come before. In the first few verses he reminds us that he was an eyewitness to the life of Jesus, and it is this life He now teaches and proclaims. This is the Gospel, the good news, that he is proclaiming.

And we’re going to start getting a taste of the power of that gospel. You know, I’ve heard John’s epistles described, along side of that of James and those of Peter, as more focused on how we should live, while Paul teaches more on what we should believe. There is obviously overlap, but for John, I’m not so quick to place his work in either camp. John does tell us how we should act as Christians, but he is so wonderfully careful to remind us how our actions come out of our beliefs. In theological terms, our orthopraxy, or our actions, flow naturally out of our orthodoxy, or our beliefs. To an extent, all of the Apostles teach this, but John is really interesting because of the way all of it merges together as one. In a single passage, he will talk about our beliefs, our actions, God’s actions, and the Gospel message all at once. It’s the truth of the Christian life – God has initiated, drawn us to Him, forgiven us by the Blood of Jesus, so that our beliefs are changed and conformed to Him, and thus our deeds are conformed as well.

John does something very interesting here, and not just here, but in all of his writings. He writes very often in extended metaphors. In his Gospel, he speaks of Jesus as “the Word.” At the beginning of this letter, he calls Jesus “the word of life,” and also, “the life.” Now he will say that “God is light.”

It’s fascinating, because John’s Greek is probably the simplest in all of the New Testament. His vocabulary is not immense, and he doesn’t use very many big words. And yet the words he does use have such depth to them that we are often astonished in his statements. “In the beginning was the word,” begins his Gospel. Rather a simple sentence, but the philosophy here seems like it would take a lifetime to fully understand. So to here. “God is light, and in him is no darkness at all” is a very simple statement, but it comes with meaning that could fill a book.

What does he mean when he says that God is light? For one, that God is without sin. There is no imperfection in Him. There is no blemish of immorality. Second, that He is able to guide us. John speaks of this too, when he says that we can “walk in the light.” You know, it’s much easier to walk a path in the day than in the night. Why? Obviously, it is because the way is lit up. With the truth of God before us, our way becomes clear.

John means to speak of salvation and life. This word is used elsewhere in the Bible to speak of the understanding that leads to salvation. Paul says in Acts 13:47, “For so the Lord has commanded us, saying, ‘I have made you a light for the Gentiles, that you may bring salvation to the ends of the earth.’” Now, God here has made Paul a light to a certain people, but notice that John says that God IS light.

And the light separates God’s own from others. We see here that the followers of Jesus are in the light. That is a distinguishing feature amongst them. In fact, John suggests, no one who follows Christ remains in darkness, and someone who is in darkness lies if he says he is a Christian.

What does this mean? Does it mean I’m a good person? Is that what walking in the light is all about? To find our answer, let’s look more into John’s other writings.

This light/dark dichotomy comes directly from the words of Jesus. So much of what John writes in his epistles are reactions to what Jesus said, and I really encourage you to be reading the Gospel of John while studying the epistle of 1 John. But listen here to Jesus from John 3:18-21, and I think things will make more sense to you:

“Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God. And this is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil. For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his works should be exposed. But whoever does what is true comes to the light, so that it may be clearly seen that his works have been carried out in God.”

Here again we talk about those who are in the light and those in the darkness, but notice that Jesus is calling Himself the light. He is identifying Himself as this light. We see this in our passage from 1 John, when we are told to “walk in the light, as he is in the light.”

This then is our dividing line. This then is the judgment spoken of by Jesus. It’s not whether we are a good person or not (though being in the light will necessarily result in good works). It is not by keeping the Law or by circumcision. It is by Jesus. Look back in John with me to the phrase that begins this section. “Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God.” The different between those of the light and those of the darkness is belief.

Again, Jesus tells us in the Gospel of John, that it is belief that separates us.

“Then they said to him, ‘What must we do, to be doing the works of God?’ Jesus answered them, ‘This is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he has sent.’”
-John 6:28-29

This belief produces something in us. This belief changes us. It is not that we are saved by works, but our faith, that which saves us, produces works. Remember that with John, these things are connected. We can turn back to the words of Jesus too. He told us at the beginning that it is belief that will condemn us or save us. But at the end of that very section, He states that “whoever does what is true comes to the light.” Now we’re talking action and not belief. If we are walking in the light as He is in the light, that is we have crossed over in faith, we will produce the fruit that John will talk about in the next part of his letter.

But let’s talk a little more about this light. When you turn on a light, it does not mean that all the mess of the room will disappear. No, the light just exposes it. And that is what we do when we repent and believe in Jesus. We have seen Jesus in the light, but we want to hide in the darkness to keep our sin concealed. But in repentance, it is as though we are running into the light, and in so doing exposes them.

Walking in the light will almost certainly cause you to walk a little straighter in the future, but let us not be confused on this point. We may still sin while in the light, as John will blatantly state in our next section. But in the light, that sin is exposed to Christ, who covers it in His Blood. If we are in the darkness, we still try to hide our sin from Him.

And that is where John goes with it. Two characteristics he gives us about those who walk in the light. It’s not that they are morally perfect, I assure you. It’s that they hang out with one another, and that their sins are forgiven in Christ. “But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin.”

This is a truly wonderful picture. No longer do we need to hide our sins. Jesus has paid for them already. No longer do we need to worry about fitting in. When walking with Christ, we walk with Christians of all nations and social classes. We are a Church, a unified body of believers, and He is our Savior. By His light is our path made more straight. It is a light that exposes us for who we are, but also drives away the sin in our lives. It is a light that forces us to walk away from that which is comfortable and familiar, but also places us with a family of believers. It is a light that forces us to confess our faults, but also forgives us of them.

Where is your Bible, dad?

“And now, O sons, listen to me, and do not depart from the words of my mouth.”
-Proverbs 5:7

We have seen quite a bit of direct address in the Proverbs. This sort of surprised me when I first really read the book. We sort of think of the Proverbs as simply a collection of sayings, mostly by Solomon, almost like if you got a lot of fortunes out of fortune cookies and taped them all on a big piece of paper. When you needed advice for something, you just search the paper for the right subject and read it.

A lot of our commentaries and sermons unwittingly promote this view of the book. Instead of going straight through the book, they will recollect the verses by subject and preach/write on each subject, taking various verses from throughout the book.

I don’t think this is a bad way of doing it, honestly. I’m trying to tackle it verse-by-verse, but I’ve been at this over a year, and I’m barely on chapter 5. At this rate I’m not going to finish for at least another five years. If I were trying to make this into a sermon series that would end in some reasonable amount of time, I don’t know that I wouldn’t try the exact same approach.

But in that, we sometimes lose what this book is about. It’s about a father teaching his kids. Solomon is pleading with his kids to seek the Lord, to follow The Lord, and to continually dwell upon Him.

Solomon urges his son to treasure these words and to keep them in his heart. It is an important request for our day, for more often than not, these words are not remembered, not kept, and not even sought.

But perhaps sadder still, these words are not even taught.

We give our kids all sorts of advice. We talk to them about how they should act, what sort of education they should pursue, if they should be dating yet, the sorts of jobs they should seek, and what they should eat. How much effort do we spend in teaching them about God?

Studies are telling us that most children leave the church once they go off to college. That’s very sad, but if they grew up in a home where Jesus was only important on Sunday morning (except on Super Bowl Sunday, when He wasn’t important at all), where making money takes priority over worship, where prayer is something done only before a meal (and often forgotten even then), is there any wonder the kids don’t think this is important?

You’ve told your kids that they shouldn’t use drugs. Have you told them why sin is worse still?

It is clear what our Heavenly Father thinks is important. He has given us some advice on life and the problems we will face here, but the clear bulk of His teaching has been in regard to our standing with Him, how sin has brought His wrath against us, and how He loved us so much that He sent His only Son to die on our behalf. Jesus didn’t come to tell us how to get a better job or how to pitch a curveball. He came to die upon the Cross, taking our sins upon Himself so that we can have eternal life.

Without faith, it is impossible to please God (Hebrews 11:6). Why is it then that earthly fathers are so easily distracted with their kids’ education, jobs, accomplishments, and relationships?

Podcast: 1 John: Complete Joy

This is a transcript of one of our recent podcasts. To subscribe to the podcast using iTunes, please click here. To listen to the podcast without iTunes, please follow this link.

And we are writing these things so that our joy may be complete.
-1 John 1:4

So we’re going to tackle a whole verse today. Honestly, I hoped to go a little faster pace through 1 John, since if we’re going to do one verse at a time, we may be here forever. But when I started looking at this one, I really felt like we needed to camp here a while.

You’ll remember from the first three verses of the book that John is telling us, very enthusiastically, that he was witness to the life and death of Christ, that he was there, that he spoke with Jesus, that he touched Him, and that he saw it all with his own eyes. And he is passing on this story to us, this Gospel, this good news, as the key to eternal life.

But not only that, he tells us as we come to verse 4, but, to repeat the verse, “we are writing these things so that our joy may be complete.”

And already we need to back up a step, because, like so many of the other Apostles when writing letters to the Church, John probably wasn’t in a position to be really thrilled about anything. This letter was either written before the destruction of Jerusalem, after John had already lost his brother James for the sake of the Gospel and while the Church was being persecuted in the city; or it was written very late in his life, when he was imprisoned on the island of Patmos.

Either way, his enthusiasm and subject matter should give us pause. This is something that amazes me in the writings of John, as well as those of Paul, James, and Peter. Even though they should be miserable, they are joyful.

And John is writing to complete this joy. Which begs the question: How can it be completed? Obviously it is not by wealth and prosperity, for the Apostles (nor Jesus) had any of this. Those prosperity preachers, it seems to me, have a lot of learn about Jesus and His Apostles, for while they tell their followers to strive after wealth, power, and prestige, these early Christians were quite content without a bit of it.

Instead, our answer comes from the context of the verse, because John is right in the middle of talking about the message of Jesus Christ.

That’s it? A message is supposed to bring us joy? If I were imprisoned on Patmos, maybe the only message that would bring me joy would be the one that says I’m about to be released. Jesus doesn’t say that. In fact, He tells us that we will be persecuted for His sake. That’s not what John is talking about.

The message of the Gospel goes much deeper than that. Because if I’m released from jail, I still have to contend with death. And even before death, I have to contend with the state of my own soul. Honestly, I look at the commands of God as He revealed in the Bible, and I’m not sure I would be so thrilled about Judgment Day if left to myself. It tells me that the most important commandment is to love God with all my heart, soul, and might. Maybe there have been moments when I’ve loved Him with part of my heart, but I can’t really say any better. The second most important commandment is to love my neighbor as myself. I mean, I love myself pretty well, but I can’t honestly say I’ve been that good to others.

Jesus tells us that to be overly angry at someone makes us guilty of murder. My thoughts are going to be on display for a righteous and just God. I don’t think I’m going to be good enough for that day.

And none of us are. The Bible tells us clearly that all have sinned and fallen short of the Glory of God, and that the wages of sin is death. That is what we have earned by our constant and unending failures to live as we should.

The good news is that Jesus, the only begotten Son of God, came to earth, lived a perfect life, and died on a Cross, even though He didn’t deserve it. He died for our sins. We owed a debt that could only be paid in death, but He died to pay that debt.

In repentance and faith we can have joy. We can have joy because our salvation is secured by a Man who can do no wrong. By His Blood we are saved, and by His Spirit sealed and kept for eternity.

By hope also we have joy, for our Lord and Savior Jesus will return one day to rule. None can oppose Him, and He will establish a peace that is everlasting. In the brightness of that day, no matter how far off it may be, how could any prison cell be darkened?

In faith again we have joy, because God promises that He is working all things for the good for those who love Him. In James’ death, in the fall of Jerusalem, in John’s imprisonment, God is working through all of these things for John’s good, and for our own. He is working things that will last forever. Our joy is rooted also in this, because God is moving every hardship we face around to draw us nearer, ever nearer, to Himself.

If that describes your faith, then you understand completely what I’m saying. It doesn’t mean it’s not hard. It doesn’t mean that you won’t be sad. It doesn’t mean you won’t mourn. You most certainly will mourn. It only means that you can turn your eyes to heaven in even those terrible moments and say, “Your will be done,” because you believe, you have hope, you have faith, and you have joy in your risen Savior, Amen.

This isn’t like one of those things that people say when things are bad. They’ll tell you that things will get better, keep your chin up, look on the bright side, things could be worse, or at least you still have your health. While people mean well, there is no promise in this world that things will get better. There is no promise in this world that you’ll have even good health very long. I get no comfort from the idea that things could be worse.

But tell me about God – how He has orchestrated all of history and every moment of my life for the good; how He loved us so much that He sent His Son to die that we might live; how it is by His hand that I am guided; and how He has promised me eternal life, not by my own goodness, but by the righteousness of Jesus – tell me about Him, and you will me in joy. Not because of my situation now, but because He is in control of the situation now, and He is guiding me someplace. By the sacrifice of Jesus, I have become an adopted child of God, and my Father takes care of His own for eternity.

Planning for tomorrow

“she [the forbidden woman] does not ponder the path of life; her ways wander, and she does not know it.”
-Proverbs 5:6

When I was not a Christian, my outlook on life really didn’t go much beyond the next weekend. I wasn’t what the world would call a bad person. Far from it. Most people considered me pretty good. But I wasn’t really thinking about how my choices would affect next week, or next year, or especially eternity.

Even the most careful planners miss that last one. They will concern themselves with retirement, with preventative health, with college funds for their children. They may even purchase a funeral plot so their families won’t have to. But when you talk about what happens after you die, even those people won’t give it much thought.

Have you thought about how your choices will affect eternity? Will the mistakes you make today be brought up on the day of judgment? Will there even BE a day of judgment? What standards will be used to judge us?

These are questions that should be foremost on everyone’s mind, because, frankly, our life is pretty short, and eternity is much, much longer.

But so often we don’t even think about next week, much less the next life. The adulterous woman in these verses is such an effective analogy for sin for just that reason. Like that relationship that lasts a moment but destroys your family forever, sin can destroy your eternity. We don’t think about that at time, do we? We do not ponder the paths of life and steer away from evil.

The truth is that there will be a judgment day. The truth is that God will judge us by our words, thoughts, and deeds. He will judge every moment of greed, of lust, of hatred, or selfishness, and of pride. It will all be laid before Him. We’re not going to be good enough to make it. We have all followed that forbidden woman of sin inside too many times, even if it was just in our minds. We will not be judged righteous before a just God.

There is only one way for us to be judged righteous, and that is through repentance and belief in Jesus. God came to earth in human form, lived a perfect life, and died upon a Cross. In that death He took upon Himself our sins and paid the price for them. In exchange, He will impute His righteousness to us, and we will be judged by His actions, not our own.

This path of life is worth the pondering. Far better to walk it. We have entertained sin quite often. We have been to that corner and spoken with her much. Yet by the love of God, we have a way to return to the path of life. We can walk it because He walked it first, and He will come and get you when you step off in weakness.

What’s the big deal?

“Her [the forbidden woman’s] feet go down to death; her steps follow the path to Sheol;”
-Proverbs 5:5

“It’s not a big deal.”

How many times have I heard that in regard to someone’s sin? How many times have I said it? Honestly, I am as guilty as anyone here. And I still do it! I treat someone badly, and I blow it off. Everyone does it. I engage in a little gossip at work. So what?

My issues may be different than someone else’s, but the reaction seems to be the same. I have some friends who are cohabitating while not married. To me this is a serious thing. To them, not so much. I can’t really blame them. I’ve done the same thing today in another issue.

Solomon uses the metaphor of the adulterous woman to represent sin. We’ve heard this analogy before – throughout the Old Testament, God has compared the unfaithfulness of Israel with a harlot who has traded the pure love of a marriage for a little money. In this, the adulterous woman stands on the corner, trying to lure us from family, from purity, from uprightness, and into death and Hell.

The analogy hits close to home. My life has been affected quite a bit because of adultery. Considering the statistics on how many people are having affairs, I’m willing to bet you’ve been affected by it too. This is a powerful analogy.

But is it an appropriate one? Can the lure of such simple sins such as gossip really be compared to a man who abandons his family for a little illicit fun?

In a word – yes. And it’s not simply because of gossip. It’s what the gossip comes from. We are, at heart, greedy, lustful, hate-filled, proud people. Society keeps these instincts in check most of the time. We don’t act on a portion of the evil desires that flow through us.

God has created us to worship Him, and yet we have abandoned Him to seek after created things – money, sex, power, and possessions. We have betrayed Him for, yes, a little juicy gossip at times. We are always seeking to fulfill our own desires, not to follow Him.

Like a wife who sells herself for a little money, we have walked away from God to chase after the nearest shiny object.

But God came to earth in the form of the man Jesus to buy us back. Upon the Cross He paid for our sins – dying in our place, even though our chasing after sin has earned for us death. Then He rose again to insure that we would rise also. If we repent and believe in Him, He tells us that He will ransom us from the death that we have made for ourselves.

Sin is a big deal. Solomon wants us to think of it like that forbidden woman. He wants us to recognize the betrayal involved in every sin.

He also wants us to see the love of a God who would go to such lengths to get us back.