As Christians, there are certain Sins that we are always good at pointing out – usually in others.Then there are obviously sins that we are shocked and appalled by, and usually we see these sins as worse than others. But the reality of the matter is, all Sin alienates us from Christ.
There aren’t any degrees of separation– we are either reconciled to God or are strangers to him; there is no in-between. We can trick ourselves into believing that it’s the really “big” sins we have to be on the lookout for, all the while ignoring grave sin in our own lives. Make no mistake—all sin is wrong, needs to be confessed and all of us need to walk away from our sinful tendencies and through humble, dependent faith, walk in righteousness.
Here we have set out five sins many Christians tend to ignore but can’t afford to ignore any longer yet alone to consider these as minor.
Selfishness/Self-Righteousness
During his earthly ministry Jesus called out the Pharisees so many times and in most cases it was always about their self-righteous or selfish manners. Today, so many of us like to display our faithful acts so that others will acknowledge what good Christians we are. The Bible does not approve that. Matter of fact, that tendency is strongly reprimanded.
‘Do nothing from selfishness or empty conceit, but with humility of mind regard one another as more important than yourselves; do not merely look out for your own personal interests, but also for the interests of others.’Philippians 2:3-4
Pride
Pride is always talked about all the time in church and we consistently discuss how detrimental and dangerous it is. Albeit, it seems like we don’t recognize what pride really is. We don’t realize that. Every time we refuse someone forgiveness we are acting in pride. Every time we argue with a friend, family member, or spouse and insist that we will not be the one to apologize first then we act out of pride. Let’s remember the grace that Christ painstakingly extends to us and try to extend that same grace and forgiveness to others.
Gossip
By definition, gossip is speaking ill of someone in their absence. We like to talk about other people’s lives as if we live in their heads and know everything about them. This is something “churchy” people are constantly accused of, and is often the result of a judgmental attitude. Why won’t the woman who had an abortion come to your church? Because she’s afraid of the looks we’ll give her and the distance at which she will be kept at. The same could be said for the pregnant sixteen-year-old or the man who cheated on his wife. Sure, it’s nice to escape our own issues by talking about someone else’s for a while, but let’s try to remember to speak with grace and that our sin is just as sinful as anyone else’s.
Hatred
In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus tells us what we already know – that murder is wrong – but he follows that up by saying that anyone who has harbored hatred towards someone has committed murder in his heart. Hatred is connected intimately with fear. We fear people we don’t understand and that fear causes us to hate them irrationally. We also tend to harbor hatred against those who have hurt us and we feel so justified doing it. We constantly need to be searching our heart and monitoring our thoughts and feelings.
Judgment
This is what will be the death of our faith and our influence. Paul tells the churches to expel sinners from their midst and he encourages us not to indulge someone in sinful behavior. We use those verses to justify the judgment of others and better believe, this is a gross misconstruction of scripture. The truth of Jesus is in our equality. We are all sinners in need of a Savior. We have accepted Christ and avoided condemnation based on faith and the grace of God. We do not avoid condemnation based on our own actions. Every time we think less of someone else, we forget that we are also sinners. The only way to avoid this sin is to acknowledge our own weaknesses and to embrace humility.
