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Rocky Mountain Ministries Articles
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Don and Wendy Francisco
This myth gets really damaging if people in a church begin to believe that because they sin less on the surface, they are better than the lost people around them. Sometimes Christians get hurt by this myth, too. They stumble in an area that other Christians think is really bad, and then they believe that God has rejected them because they are rejected by other Christians.
Some churches taboo smoking but not gluttony. Yet gluttony is named as a sin in the Bible while smoking is not. Every church looks at sin differently. Sometimes our definitions of sin have more to do with culture than they do with Scripture.
Although some sins are more destructive in the here and now than others, to God, sin is sin. It only takes a bad thought to disqualify somebody from heaven. But Jesus has qualified us as a gift.
I don't think Jesus had a condescending attitude towards the people He hung out with at the docks and in the streets. I think He liked them. In fact, the Bible goes so far as to say that people who are aware that they are sinners have a softer heart towards God. This may be why Jesus chose fishermen for disciples rather than the seminary grads of His day - afterall, the ark was built by amateurs - professionals built the Titanic.
All sin hurts people and that's why God wants us to avoid it and to walk in His ways. We believers need to remember that to God, gossip and judgement is like murder and adultery. We need to stay humble because we have been given a great gift.
Nobody should look down on a person because of their sins. We ALL sin, and Jesus died for ALL sinners.