Dear Victorious,
What do you think is the most common sin of people in America who profess to be Christians?
Drew T. - Los Rios, NM
Dear Drew,
I believe there are three most common sins amongst the self-professing Christians in modern American culture.
The first ... and the clear winner ... would be in not putting God first in our lives. Too many people identify themselves as Christians - yet fail miserably at living up to the New Testament standards for Christians. They aren't committed to a local church, they don't tithe, they worship other gods, etc. We are way too distracted by materialism, sports, hobbies, sexuality, entertainment or even gossip --- to have God playing first place in our lives. Most Christians in America spend far more time and money on their entertainment than they do on their God --- which automatically places entertainment above God.
The second is the sin of not loving others. The Bible clearly commands us to love each other as we would want to be loved. We are told to love our enemies. Men are to love their wives "like Christ loved the church." Simply put, we are failing miserably at this. We may have feelings for others - such as pity. But true love would go much further than feelings. Take men and their wives, for example. We are to love them to such a degree that we would be willing to die for them. But few men are willing to make even modest sacrifices for their wives. Or if they are willing, they do so grudgingly, with resentment and eventual bitterness. Take our enemies, for example. We tend to demonize them and treat them as sinister and deserving of our worst wrath. This is not Christ-like love.
The third is simply lying. Our culture has made lying quite socially acceptable. Consider, for example, the notion of a "white lie," - as if there ever could be such a thing! We've called them that because we seem to believe that some lies are appropriate. So we lie to ourselves. We like to our spouses, our children and parents. We lie to our bosses, our friends, and even to our churches. We lie on applications, in surveys and in lots of other ways. This is not Christ-like behavior.
Tuesday, October 6, 2009
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