Good Morning Everyone,
Our theme for this month: “Conflict”
Our Bible verse for today: “Come, let us discuss this,’ says the Lord. “Though your sins are like scarlet, they will be white as snow; though they are red as crimson, they will be like wool.” Isaiah 1:18 (HCSB)
Our thought for today: “A sin is a sin is a sin …”
This morning I want to return to the subject we addressed in last Friday’s devotional about the fact that we all have our own sins and therefore we need to pay more attention to our own faults than we do to the faults we think we see in the lives of others. Our Bible passage for that lesson was Matthew 7:3-5 where Jesus taught the parable of the speck and the log.
I’m bringing us back to this subject because it’s such a big problem and such as constant source of conflict. Even if we do come to the point of admitting and acknowledging our own sin, we usually then begin to rank our sins against those of other people and we come to the conclusion that “Even if I do have some sin in my own life, it’s not as bad as the sins of other people.” “Their sins are much worse then my sins.”
Not according to Jesus they aren’t.
In Isaiah 1:18 does the Lord say that the other guy’s sins of murder and theft and adultery are like a bright scarlet stain – too obvious to be missed or ignored; but your sins of pride and envy and gossip are just sort of a very dim light pink and are hardly noticeable – therefore you don’t really need to worry about them too much because they’re really not a big deal? That’s what He says, right? Not! He makes no distinction between one sin and another – together they’re all like scarlet to Him. To Jesus they’re all a big bright glaring red stain against the pristine whiteness and purity of His holiness.
The great devotional writer Oswald Chambers once explained it this way, “If you look at a sheep in the summertime you would say it was white, but see it against the background of startling virgin snow and it looks like a blot on the landscape. If we judge ourselves by one another we do not feel condemned, but immediately Jesus Christ is in the background – His life, His language, His looks, He labors, we feel judged instantly.”
Focusing on the sins and shortcomings we think we see in the lives of other people, while conveniently ignoring our own sins, is a common source of conflict. Ranking our sins against those of others and pretending that we are somehow better, or not as guilty, is ridiculous. In the eyes of God you’re as guilty as the next person and as much in need of forgiveness as they are. Take a look at the Gospels sometime and see which sins bothered Jesus the most. He quickly forgave the prostitutes and the tax collectors, but He condemned the smug and judgmental Pharisees. If sins were going to be ranked, and if we used Jesus’ own reaction to those sins, we would probably have to conclude that religious pride and self-righteous smugness are much worse sins than are adultery and stealing.
Yes, in the eyes of God a sin is a sin is a sin, and yours are just as bad as the next guy’s. And so are mine. So rather than criticizing and condemning them for theirs, maybe our time would be better spent doing something about our own.
God Bless,
Pastor Jim
Oak Hill Baptist Church 