Thu, 1 September, 2005: Today’s Bible readings.
9 Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality, 10 nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. 11 And such were some of you. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.
Sometimes in scripture we run across sin lists. Paul gives us one in today’s passage. It is important to understand that these lists are representative but not exhaustive. We can’t say, “Paul didn’t mention embezzlers, so as a Christian I can embezzle all I want.” No. The point isn’t that we are to avoid the sins listed and ONLY the sins listed. Rather, the list serves the purpose by giving us examples of representative sins. We are to avoid all sins, and here are just a few samples.
Another thing to be careful of with these sin lists is that we tend to concentrate too much on what we consider the “big” sins in the list while ignoring the “smaller” sins. For example, Paul mentions homosexuality in this sin list. To often in some Evangelical Christian circles, we act like homosexuality is the unpardonable sin. But for some reason we ignore that Paul lists the greedy and the revilers right beside the homosexual. Why don’t we treat the sins of greed and abusive language with the same level of disdain we sometimes reserve for homosexuality? Could it be because within the church (and in our own lives) we see greed and abusive language regularly, but homosexuality rarely. Could it be because we think of homosexuality as a sin of THOSE people outside the church, and so we heap our scorn upon that sin and consequently upon THOSE people. Meanwhile, these other sins are staring us in the face when we look in the mirror every morning, and so we ignore them.
But notice how important this sin list is. Paul says that if these sins are characteristic of your life, you are not saved. You will not inherit the kingdom of God. This is serious stuff.
What do we learn from this?
Sin is serious. It is deadly serious. Sin is nothing to indulge in our own life. It is nothing to wink at or ignore. It is nothing to excuse or overlook. Sin is deadly serious and we must confront it or suffer the terrible consequences.
We often are very good at seeing the sin in other people, but somehow we don’t notice the sin in our own lives. We can listen to the sermon and think, “So-and-so really needs to hear this.” And so when we read this list of sins, we think of all the people we know who are guilty of these sins rather than think of our own lives and our own need for repentance.
Jesus warns us against this attitude:
3 Why do you see the speck that is in your brother’s eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye? 4 Or how can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when there is the log in your own eye? 5 You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother’s eye.
We need to take these sin lists seriously and repent of our own sins.
Where is Christ in this passage?
As we are convicted of our sin and are driven to come to God in repentance, we are given a great word of comfort by the apostle Paul. After giving the sin list, Paul tells us: And such were some of you. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.
Notice the past tense. That sin list used to characterize us. But for those who have come to God and are savingly trusting in Jesus Christ for salvation, that list no longer defines you. Through faith in Jesus Christ and the work of the Holy Spirit in your life, you have been cleansed from those sins. You are declared to be righteous in the Father’s sight because your sins have been punished on Jesus on the cross and you are now dressed in the perfect righteousness of Christ that has been imputed to you (you are justified). And the Holy Spirit is working in your life to change your conduct so you are more and more obedient to the word of God as you progress in your Christian walk (you are sanctified).
We need to be careful of our conduct. We need to work to obey God. We need to avoid the sins of this sin list. But if we are in Christ, we are no longer guilty of these sins before God, nor will these sins be the overriding character of our lives.
