Golly, it's been almost a month since I posted last. I better up the posting lest I get taken off the ArmyBarmy blog roll!
Have we developed an "its-ok-to-sin-a-little-bit-if-you-sinned-a-lot-before" attitude.
I have a bunch of friends who's lives resembled that of Paul when he used to be Saul, but have encountered the Living God since and have made huge changes in their lives. But often these same people still stay gripped to something or become gripped to something else eventually. Perhaps in the past they were a rapist and now wouldn't even think about harming another person sexually again. That alone, Praise God! That's the repentance I'm talking about...except that say this person then thinks it's okay to masturbate or look up porn. How long do we rejoice at drastic changes before we address the sin that so easily entangles? On one hand they arn't raping people anymore, and that's such a good good thing...but on the other hand they are still not living in perfect union with the Holy Spirit and that is not a good thing at all. Perhaps a better example would work. Say someone is sleeping around, abusing drugs and alcohol, shoplifting daily and is quite violent, and they do that for years and years, and you stand beside them all these years, praying and praying that they would see the Lord and see how much he loves them and how much He wants them to be free, then one day they do, they do see the Lord and His love for them and receives His freedom...then a couple weeks or months down the road, though haven't left the Lord, begins to pick up some unhealthy, yet not as severe as the past, habits. This little bit of sin can sometimes be justified because it's not as bad as it was before. I find too often in the Church we think it's okay to sin a little bit, especially if we're not sinning like we did when we didn't know the Lord.
Take my neighbourhood for example. I know many people who have lived in huge addictions for most of their lives. I have walked beside people who were daily injectors. Then those same people I have also walked beside as they have gone to treatment and are no longer using heroin. Well, again - Praise God, it's really great and encouraging stuff. So great, that I might think that their pot smoking habit is okay. I mean 'its just pot right' at least it's not heroin. Bogus! Sin is sin and sin sucks. Jesus as the well didn't say, from now on sin only a little bit, he said from now on sin no more!
I think that this little bit of sin thing is more dangerous then the sinful as the world type sin. At least when your whole life revolves around sin- it's out in the open and obvious and you can only go up from here...its the little sins, the secret ones you don't tell people, the ones that are in your back closet that are the ones that will drag you deep deep down.
And this is why holiness is so important.
