Today’s Scripture Reading (April 14, 2018): 1 John 1
I love Salvador Dali’s quip that you
need to “have no fear of perfection - you'll never reach it.” The
comment explains so much about life. From the moment we were born, we started
our process of making mistakes. Much of what we learn in life, we learn from
the mistakes that we have made, although I reject that that is the only way
that we learn. If we cannot learn from the mistakes of others, as well as
ourselves, then we will be maimed or dead long before we have learned very
much. Still, mistakes are important to our learning process. Anyone who
declares that they never make mistakes has
long ago stopped trying to expand their circle of experiences. There is no
other path to a perfect life. If my opinion is worth anything, I don’t believe
that we fail near enough. We are too scared of our imperfections to allow them
to be put on display. Yet, making mistakes is part of the path to success. So, maybe it is time that we admit that we all make mistakes.
No one is immune. This is simply the
reality of our lives.
So why do we sometimes have so much
trouble admitting that we also have sin in our lives?
Sin is essentially nothing more than spiritual or moral mistakes. Maybe looking
differently at sin is what is required for us to understand our sin. No one is
without sin. This statement is not supposed to be guilt-inducing any more than the mistakes that we make are evidence
of our weakness. It is just a normal part of our existence.
Maybe we need to recognize that there
are many kinds of sin. The Sunday School answer for the definition of sin is “a
willful transgression of a known law of God.” But this is just one kind of sin.
The Bible says that we are born into sin, which has nothing to do with the
process of birth or conception, no matter how hard some might try to convince
you of this, but just indicates that we
are all prone to rebel. Not all rebellion is sin,
but out rebellious natures often carry us into sin. If you wanted to sit down
with my parents for a few minutes, they could regale you with stories of my
rebellion and sin starting at an extremely young age. Not all of my rebellion
was sin, but some definitely was. This natural
tendency to rebel, especially when it comes to sin, is something that we have
the power to curtail. Having extramarital relationships with porn stars is a
choice of rebellion that we don’t have to make – it is a rebellion that we should
be able to control. Lying instead of telling the truth is a choice that we make
that reveals our inner character. Sin of this
sort, as we grow older and our character matures, we should be able to avoid.
But this is only one kind of sin.
Sin is not always intentional. There are
some things that we do that accidentally carries us into sin. This category of
sin we often have no control over because we don’t realize that we have sinned. Often this type of sin is a violation
of the law of love. We have hurt someone with our actions, for which we are
responsible, but without intention and sometimes even without knowledge. I am a
fan of hockey, and this kind of sin might be
best illustrated by the “unintentional high sticking” call in the sport.
The rule is that every player must be in control of their stick. But at the
speed of the game, sometimes high sticks happen. Hitting an opposing player in
the head area with a stick, even if it is unintentional, will net a player, at a
minimum, a two-minute penalty and time in
the area colloquially known as the “sin bin.” We are responsible for the
actions of our lives, and for our moral transgressions, even when we do not
know that these transgressions are present in our lives. The recognition of
this type of sin is the purpose of the Jewish holiday “Yom Kippur” or the Day
of Atonement. The Day of Atonement was designed to provide ritual forgiveness
for our unintentional sin.
And then some sin is situational. Peter
is a great example of this type of sin.
During the trial of Jesus at the end of
Passion Week, Peter denies Jesus three times. There is no doubt that this
denial of Christ is a sin. But I have
often argued, to anyone who will listen, that we need to look at the
circumstances of the denial. Peter, a fisherman, was unaccustomed of being in
places like the courtyard of the High Priest, and especially uncomfortable in
this moment because a trial of the movement of which he was a key part was
taking place in the courtyard. Peter was asked three times if he was a part of
this Christian movement. And three times Peter said no. He denied even knowing
his friend who was on trial. It was a massive failure and sin on the part of
Peter. But the rest of the disciples, who did not deny knowing Christ, had long
since gone into hiding. Peter’s sin is a direct result of the situation that he
had placed himself in while the others had abandoned Jesus. In Peter’s defense,
at least he was trying.
Paul writes “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23).
John says that if we deny the existence of that sin,
then we call Jesus a liar and deny him one more time. But the other side of the
coin is that this is why Jesus died on a cross for our sin. The purpose of his
death was to free us from the guilt that comes along with all of our sins. As we mature in Christ, our “willful
transgressions” should decrease. After all, we are adults who should be able to
define our characters and not be blown from place to place by the winds of our
culture. But, if we are willing to recognize that sin does exist in our lives,
the penalty for that sin has already been paid. The recognition of our sin is
nothing more than an affirmation of the trust that we have placed in Jesus
Christ.
Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: 1 John 2
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