"And the Lord said, "Do not fear, Oh Israelites, for some of your sins are worse than others. Henceforth, these sins shall not be a abominable as the rest of them..." Hezekiah* 32:4.
*Hezekiah is not an actual book of the Bible, just what my youth pastor uses for all those things people say are in the bible but aren't really.
No, it's not really in there.
I've noticed that there seems to be an unspoken, but very, very real hierarchy when it comes to sin. My theory is that putting a wall around ourselves "Well, at least I don't commit THAT sin.. I'm not THAT bad.." makes us feel safe, or, dare I say it, holy. We comfort ourselves in the knowledge that we don't need as much grace as that other guy. It is our natural tendency to classify things. So we classify sins. And that classification, give or take a few, looks something like this...
Level 1: Basic Not-Really-Only-Kinda-Sin Sins
These are things we don't really consider to be sins anymore, unless brought up by someone in authority, (such as a pastor) in which case they are sins that only other people commit.
Examples: Spreading rumors, jealousy, "little white" lies, horoscopes.
Level 2: Sins-Committed-Only-By-Bad-Christians
These are things that are done relatively commonly, but are only done by sinful, but still accepted, people. These sins are tolerated of anyone except those in religious authority, such as pastors, deacons, sunday school teachers, or anyone else attempting to challenge your personal belief philosophy. In a case where a person in religious authority is accused of one of these sins, any previous merit the person has received is nullified. This is the level at which the admittance of sin stops.
Examples: lying, using minor curse words, giving the bird in traffic, light drinking.
Level 3: Not-Really-OK-But-We-Might-Forgive-You-If-You-Gravel Sins
At this point, few Christians will admit to committing these sins, especially if confronted by a pastor or other person in religious authority (see level 2). These sins, however, are okay to mention in testimonies, as long as it is understood that these sins are detestable to anyone else and said testimonier has been sin-free since. A Christian caught doing these sins will be allowed to stay in the church community, but the person will generally be avoided, and parents will teach their children to stay away from these people.
Examples: getting a second divorce (the first is generally excusable, this, however, cannot be mentioned in testimony UNLESS testimonier has reconciled with spouse one or two), having a child outside wedlock, starting rumors.
Level 4: Keep-Your-Children-Away-From-Mine Sins
These things are not acceptable to anyone who would like to participate in the Church community.
Examples: admitting to problems with pornography, any sort of felony charge, alcoholism.
Level 5: We're-Not-Sure-If-Jesus-Would-Forgive-You Sins
Let me just give you the list. These things are considered absolutely appalling.
Examples: Murder, attempted suicide, animal abuse, being a prostitute, having more than one child outside of wedlock.
Am I the only one who thinks that there is something wrong with this system? Maybe. I think it's incredibly dangerous to put levels ---and limits--- on grace.
Prodigal John, as he is known to the twitter world, the author of "Stuff Christians Like" posted this in his blog recently. (Check out his blog at stuffchristianslike.net!):
There was a guy in the Bible who was the worst. He was such a failure. He lied once and got an entire village murdered as a result. A priest and his family were killed because of his lies. He committed adultery. He cheated. He trusted in his own strength instead of the Lord’s. And when he did, when he failed, thousands and thousands of people died as a result. His family suffered from incest and murder and his hands were so covered with wrongfully shed blood that eventually God wouldn’t let him do something really important.
Now imagine if that person was a commenter on Stuff Christians Like. Imagine if they confessed to homicide and adultery and a laundry list of other sins. I mean there have been some crazy comments on this site, but no one has ever said, “I saw this girl online and thought she was really hot, so I slept with her, got her pregnant and then arranged on craigslist for her husband to be killed.” But this guy, the guy in the Bible, he could have left that comment. And if he did, would you or me or the writer of that email instantly think, “He didn’t take grace too far?” No, we’d be horrified. We’d be terrified.
So how is he referred to in the Bible? Here is what God says about him:
“I have found David son of Jesse a man after my own heart,”
This view of grace, to me, is so astounding. And this is the scary Old Testament God saying all these things!! But just imagine if someone like that walked into the door of your church. If you're just casually chatting it up with them, and they told you something like that.
Chances are, you (and thousands of other people) would never talk to him again. He'd probably leave after that, and you (and thousands of other people) would tell the story about the crazy ax-murderer you met in church and how you almost died.
Funny thing is... Jesus flocked to those people. Jesus
liked them. Better yet, He
loved them. He wasn't afraid to talk to the prostitute or the woman who'd had multiple husbands or the tax collectors or the dirty fisherman or anyone else. He wasn't even afraid to talk to the religious nuts who had that self-righteous thing down to a pat. I'm willing to bet that if Jesus were alive today, he'd be talking to the stripper outside the club, the drunken homeless men under the bridge, or the teenage mom with two kids, or the creepy guy who very possibly may have just come down from a 3 day cocaine high.
And to think... we're supposed to be Jesus to everyone else.
