Let’s play a word game for a moment.
I will write a word and I want you to say (perhaps only internally) the first thing that comes to mind when you hear the word.
Fall.
I won’t give any answers just in case you were tempted to scroll down the page and not get the full benefit of the exercise. What comes to mind for me in relation to that word, are things like “fall” and bang my head. Or perhaps the season that precedes winter is what came to mind for you.
How about the word “change?” A word like that is going to get a lot of different reactions depending on the person answering the question.
Now, how about the word “sin?” What comes to mind for you? How do you feel about the word and what it represents.
From the Merriam-Webster online dictionary, I found the following:sin
1 of 4 noun (1)
sin
Synonyms of sin
1a: an offense against religious or moral law
b: an action that is or is felt to be highly reprehensible
it's a sin to waste food
c: an often serious shortcoming: fault
2a: transgression of the law of God
b: a vitiated state of human nature in which the self is estranged from God
(I looked up the word “vitiated” and it means to corrupt, impair or weaken.)
It’s clear that the nature of the word “sin” is a very serious one. When you sin, how do you feel about yourself? When others close to you sin, how do you feel towards them? Do you repent of your sin? And...as it relates to the intent of this article, if sin is such a serious subject, why haven’t I heard it spoken about regularly in the church?
Is it in part because the church is trying to be sinless? I think so. Sin is a very bad thing and I would expect to get a very broad range of agreement on that point from any Christian I talk to...but consider the following for a moment; if the church is in fact sinless, then it is also graceless as well. Without the presence of sin, there is no need for the presence of God’s saving grace.
In a sinless church, there would be no need for repentance. If the church of God was without “saints who sin,” then there would be no need for the scripture verse found in Matt. 18:5 - “Moreover if your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault between you and him alone. If he hears you, you have gained your brother.”
Jesus statement about lust in Matt. 5:28 -“But I say to you that whoever looks at a woman to lust for her has already committed adultery with her in his heart,” wouldn’t be necessary in the Holy Bible.
In the book of James 5:16, it says, “Therefore, confess your sins to one another, and pray for one another so that you may be healed. A prayer of a righteous person, when it is brought about, can accomplish much.”
And of course, the seminal writing of Paul the Apostle, in Romans 7:13-25, would need to be discarded if you and I truly believe the church to be sinless.
"But
how can that be? Did the law, which is good, cause my death? Of
course not! Sin used what was good to bring about my condemnation to
death. So we can see how terrible sin really is. It uses God’s good
commands for its own evil purposes.
So the trouble is not with the law, for it is spiritual and good. The trouble is with me, for I am all too human, a slave to sin. I don’t really understand myself, for I want to do what is right, but I don’t do it. Instead, I do what I hate. But if I know that what I am doing is wrong, this shows that I agree that the law is good. So I am not the one doing wrong; it is sin living in me that does it.
And I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature. I want to do what is right, but I can’t. I want to do what is good, but I don’t. I don’t want to do what is wrong, but I do it anyway. But if I do what I don’t want to do, I am not really the one doing wrong; it is sin living in me that does it.
I have discovered this principle of life—that when I want to do what is right, I inevitably do what is wrong. I love God’s law with all my heart. But there is another power within me that is at war with my mind. This power makes me a slave to the sin that is still within me.
Oh, what a miserable person I am! Who will free me from this life that is dominated by sin and death? Thank God! The answer is in Jesus Christ our Lord. So you see how it is: In my mind I really want to obey God’s law, but because of my sinful nature I am a slave to sin.”
The church is clearly not sinless.
If the church were in fact sinless, then it would also be graceless, which would be a very chilling testimony to the world, or perhaps...just maybe...a very chilling testimony to those struggling with “unpardonable sins” within the “family of God.”
What would you consider an unpardonable sin? What do the local churches you’ve been connected to consider to be an unpardonable sin?
Porn...and porn addiction.
Based on the actions or lack of actions that I’ve seen over the last 3 decades by local church leaders and the overwhelming statistical evidence, it’s porn. Porn is believed to be something that is unpardonable, or as close to it as a sin is going to get. Most church leaders avoid this like the plague, even though the problem of porn addiction within the church, closely mirrors the usage by those outside the faith.
As one anonymous fellow stated, regarding talking about porn in a Christian community group, “a person can talk about work addiction or alcohol addiction in a community group of Christians, but if you bring up the subject of porn addiction...it kind of clears the room.” How’s that for a gross understatement?!?!?
Pornography is prostitution with a camera present. Therefore, the huge numbers of people in the Christian faith who struggle with sexual sin/the sin of porn consumption, are therefore viewed in the same light as the prostitutes and tax collectors were when Jesus walked the earth in human form: people thought to be beyond the reach of God’s grace.
If
the people trying
to recover from
porn addiction don’t hear those in
positions of authority within
the church confess
their sins and receive grace, why would they assume that there
was grace available for them?
Imagine
there being a church sign of a community church saying “Sinners
Welcome.” Just
a thought.
Can
a church leader/elder/deacon/pastor/minister be a “sinless”
leader and at the same time be a “brother in Christ?” Are they
able to get the same sort of compassionate help from another member
of the “family of God,” or do they need to be a cut above because
they are an example of what godliness is, and if not, they will be
replaced or fired?
Based on the vast number of studies that have been done on the subject of porn use within the Christian faith, are there a high number of believers in leadership of the church that have a serious problem with sexual sin/porn use? Sadly, yes.
So what can be done? There are two groups of people that I am referring to in this article. There is certainly some crossover between the groups but I can primarily help the individual brother or sister in Christ who is looking for victory over this destructive behaviour pattern. For the typical local church to change it would require an awakening of conscience not seen in maybe a hundred years or more, I don’t know.
When I came into the faith in 1994, I was very excited and eager to learn. I made an assumption that those who had been walking with the Lord would provide me a lot of guidance and support. I was very hurt and disappointed by what I encountered. In the first couple of weeks, a well meaning Christian man whose family had been in the faith for several generations told me that “I didn’t seem like a Christian.”
I had just come out of the world. I had only quite smoking cigarettes and marijuana a couple weeks prior after years of regular use. I was a brand new baby in the faith, what did he expect from me? I have come to see a consistent pattern in the church in over 30 years of what is referred to in Luke 15:28-30. In the story of the prodigal son, the older brother actually believes he has never sinned. It does not use the word overtly, but here’s what it says.
“The older brother became angry and refused to go in. So his father went out and pleaded with him. But he answered his father, ‘Look! All these years I’ve been slaving for you and never disobeyed your orders. Yet you never gave me even a young goat so I could celebrate with my friends. But when this son of yours who has squandered your property with prostitutes comes home, you kill the fattened calf for him!”
Firstly, in the NIV translation, he defines the work that his father has asked him to do as a form of “slavery.” The word “serve” is used in other translations but no matter what translation you read this passage from, you find a lot of self righteous indignation and pride emanating from the older brother.
The second part to take note of is the statement about “never having disobeyed your orders.” This is a fallacy and delusional and speaks of a person who believes they are somehow perfect or shall we say...sinless?!?!
No one debates the really bad conduct of the prodigal, but the older brother’s arrogance is quite disturbing.
In Matt. 18: 9-14, we have the story of the Pharisee and the tax collector. “Also He spoke this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and despised others. Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector.
The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself, ‘God, I thank You that I am not like other men—extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this tax collector. I fast twice a week; I give tithes of all that I possess.’
And the tax collector, standing afar off, would not so much as raise his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, ‘God, be merciful to me a sinner!’ I tell you, this man went down to his house justified rather than the other; for everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.”
Older brotherism (I made that word up) is alive and well in the Christian church. If you are reading this and have a compulsive sexual sin problem/porn addiction, it doesn’t let you off the hook as to what you are personally responsible for, it just may help you understand that getting empathy from church members who are “sinless” is a losing proposition. That is the primary focus of this article.
Whatever term you want to use to define your problem with pornography use, it doesn’t much matter. There is so much shame, depression and loneliness that comes as baggage with this nasty habit that it’s not that important.
What is important is you start to see yourself in the proper context within the church and realize that part of the problem has nothing to do with you, it has to do with others who view this sexual sin as unpardonable. This is a blatant lie and that is the primary point I’m trying to make.
God does not have an inferiority complex like humans do. God is so perfect and powerful, he can receive anyone he wants into the family of God, no matter what sin(s) they have committed.
Corrie Ten Boom was a Christian woman and holocaust survivor who met one of her captures after the second world war. The man had been one the guards of their barracks and he had treated his sister horribly and made her to suffer an extreme amount.
Several years after the war she met him at a church gathering. She recognized him right away and he extended his hand in Christian fellowship. Every fibre in her body wanted to pull away from this man, but now he was a brother in Christ! She was able to shake his hand and travel the world many times telling this incredible story of God’s sovereign, (which means supreme) grace.
In Gal. 5:21 the English Standard Version says “envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.”
1 Peter 4:3
“For
you have spent enough time in the past carrying out the same desires
as the Gentiles: living in debauchery, lust, drunkenness, orgies,
carousing, and detestable idolatry.”
God was able to take people that had consistently made some really bad lifestyle choices (sins) and build them into the foundation of the New Testament Church. God isn’t looking for perfect people, he’s got the corner on that market!
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