Did you hear a cow barking just now? There are a few things wrong with that, huh? But, what could they be? It’s not a cat, and cats meow and dogs bark.
Of course, I’m being silly. A whole lot of other animals don’t meow, either. And, that’s the whole point of why we need to be known for what we’re for, not just what we’re against. After all, a whole bunch of animals don’t meow or bark. But there are specific things that point to something being a dog and not a cow.
We discussed how we should be known more for what we believe in than what we don’t, like the basic parts of faith – the Virgin Birth, Jesus being fully man and fully God, His death and resurrection, with the blood He shed on the cross paying the whole price for our sins. This can help you tell Muslims Sonship isn’t physical relations (walad), it means Jesus has every trait of God (ibn.) But, now let’s dig deeper for how to recognize sins versus choices. And, how does the Bible say to react when something is sin?
I kind of gave away the first one, huh? We know what sin is based on the Bible. The devil wants to tear down and incite fury and hatred, as I’ve shown. John 10:10 shows this well as you know; and may have memorized. The devil tries to tear us down. He does this by getting us to sin – sadly, we do that well without him. He makes us attack people for everything if we’re not careful. So, if people argue about masks or vaccines, remember these are worldly things. Commandments aren’t broken either way with them. It’s like the ladies in Phil 4:2-3 arguing. Paul would have noted if it was a doctrinal issue, so it wasn’t.
What if something is sin? Remember, the Holy Spirit convicts people. John 16:7-12 says the Spirit convicts the world of sin, righteousness, and judgment. The Spirit moves believers, too. We can’t move hearts like the Spirit can; we can just share the Gospel and our love so people might choose to follow Jesus.
Some sins are worse to us, of course. But sin is sin to God. One girl in our current group complained bitterly about graven images. I agreed, the 2nd Commandment is don’t do that. But then, I asked when she’d last broken the 5th one – “Honor thy father & mother.” She got the message. In the story she’d told, she’d been like that person who says “It’s not a cat, so it must be a dog.” She was saying, “You’re only okay if you’re not worshipping graven images” instead of saying “We’ve all sinned and need Jesus to save us.”
We should, of course, condemn sin. We should say “murder is wrong” “I should never cheat on a test,” “don’t beat people up,” etc. But we shouldn’t go around condemning people all the time. We can focus on the positive; Jesus saves, and once we trust Jesus to save us, His forgiveness is forever. We don’t get better so we can come to Jesus; it was while we were yet sinners Christ died for us.(Rom. 5:8)
Our job is in Matthew 28:18-20, Mark 16:15, etc. – the Great Commission. This means we share the Gospel - the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus for our sin.(1 Cor. 15:3-4) We’ve all sinned; sin is falling short of God’s mark of perfection. So, stuff like lying, selfishness, etc. are good enough examples. Sure, we can talk about faults, and we can confess faults(James 5:16) so people who will help us, like having a friend remind you not to gossip. But we only confess sin to Jesus since only He can forgive us.
We’ll share about why people might struggle later.
Comments
Post a Comment
Thanks for commenting. If I did this right, your comment is beign reviewed just to make sure you're human and youu're you're not doing something mean like cyberbullying.