Church & Sin

A Piece on why the Church has no choice but to be filled with hypocrites.

I've never been deep. I've never walked around screaming about my relationship with God or the Black Church. I have had hosts of one on one conversations with friends and associates about my personal beliefs, but very rarely do I discuss them publicly for my own personal reasons. As of late though, I've been thinking A LOT about my views on spirituality vs. religion, relationship vs. tradition, what I believe to be right vs. what the Bible says is, even though I believe the Bible in its entirety. It's A LOT...here's the first piece, probably of a few, on what's been going on in my mind. . .

Here's a thing, there are almost 125 sins listed in the Bible, here are several:

• idolatry

• greed

• covetousness

• gluttony

• complaining

• tempting God

• high-mindedness

• disobedience

• witchcraft

• sloth

• laziness

• neglecting to assemble with "the saints"

• dishonoring parents

• murder

• anger

• hate,

• abortion

• adultery

• fornication

• being a whore

• homosexuality

• sensuality

• tempting others sexually

• pornography

• stealing

• bribery

• extortion

• cheating

• gambling

• lying

• gossiping

• spreading rumors

• breaking promise

• craftiness

• hypocrisy

• dishonesty

• withholding all of the truth

• bragging

• envy

• drunkenness

• drug abuse

Got it? Good. Here's another thing, all my life I've heard, "Sin is sin, all sin is equal in the eyes of God." However, I can't find a scripture to back that up. But what I can find is, "For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord" (Romans 6:23) and "for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God" (Romans 3:23).

We ALL sin. We ALL deserve death.

BUT..."For God so loved the world, He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believe in Him shall not perish, but have everlasting life" (John 3:16). That's the purpose of the Church. To give sinners hope, to encourage them to live a life full of love as Jesus did, to answer questions about the Christian walk, to allow them a place of comfort and solace while they develop their own personal relationship with Christ because "...if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come" (2 Corinthians 5:17).

The Church is known to be full of hypocrites because somewhere along the way the Church has branded itself as a place without sin. That will never be true. There will always be sinners, new and old, sitting in somebody's church. Because of this inaccurate branding (and y'all know I hate bad marketing & branding), when the Church goes to judge sinners outside the Church, said sinners look back at us like "Huh? I know y'all not talking to me!" And I get them.

Here's my concern, where is the Church's accountability to those in the Church who claim Christianity, but they clearly aren't in Christ because they haven't become a new creature? I can count on one hand, the people I would call if I thought I had missed the return of Jesus to make sure they were still on Earth.  I'd call these particular people not because I think they have never sinned (even though I'm positive my Aunt Sallie never has), I'd call them because they exemplify love, wisdom, prayerfulness, obedience, humility and ministry. They reach out to people when they're sick, they ask how others are doing and are genuinely concerned with the answer, they live and breathe to make sure your soul is connected to God, they tell the truth, and they loveeeeee the Lord and it's clear.

It is crystal clear when a person is leading a life connected to God's will. You can tell they're different. You usually admire them, not because of their spiritual life, but just because they're a good human being.

The Church has no choice but to be hypocritical because the church will never not have sinners in their pews. But the sinners should want to be changed. And while they're sinning, they shouldn't judge others outside the church for sinning also, and after they've made a conscious decision to give their life to Christ and try their best to put aside their totally sinful ways, they should reach back and encourage the next life, the next soul to do the same.

What the Church does have a choice in is what they teach, what they do, what they say. All I'm seeing is sinners who want to sin right now, nothing new. I think the Church should choose Christ.