Acceptable Sins

Any genuine Christian is concerned about sin. No, not just the sin of others (like the rest of the world seems to think), but our own especially. John wrote, "No one born of God makes a practice of sinning, for God's seed abides in him; and he cannot keep on sinning, because he has been born of God" (1 John 3:9). Note the "cannot." It is outside of the nature of one born of God to be comfortable with sin. So we are concerned for others, sure, but we are concerned more about our own sin. It seems strange, then, that we seem to miss some of them. We tolerate gossip much better than homosexual behavior. We overlook greed while not giving an inch to sexual immorality. Murder is clearly a sin, but what about those times when we don't glorify God?

"Hang on a second," some will say, "are you saying that's an issue?" Well, Jesus defined His life and ministry solely in terms of what His Father told Him to say and do. He exemplified a life aimed at glorifying God. Paul wrote, "Whatever you do, do all to the glory of God" (1 Cor 10:31). The question is do you, in "whatever you do," seek to glorify God? If the answer is "No" at some point, it is a failure to follow a biblical command -- a sin. "That's okay," we tend to think. "It's not a bad one. It's not real evil." Except that it is. It is, in fact, a primary evil. It is ... an "acceptable sin" for those of us who would like to think that there is no such thing.

We're good with "specks" but miss "logs" (Matt 7:3-4). We often assign "speck" status to our own "logs." But, if we are truly Christ-followers, our number one priority ought to be the glory of God as it was to the One we are following. And now that I've brought it to your attention -- and you're a Christian -- that ought to bother you about yourself. You're welcome.