Gossip and slander emit a threefold poison: they injure the teller, the hearer, and the person about whom a tale is told. Whether the report is true or false matters nothing—by this Scripture, we are forbidden to spread it. The reputation of the Lord’s people should be very precious in our sight, and we should be ashamed to help the devil dishonor the church and the name of the Lord. Some tongues need a bridle rather than a spur. Many people revel in pulling down their brothers and sisters, as if by doing so they are somehow raising themselves. Noah’s two wise sons placed a cloak over their father, but the foolish son who exposed Noah earned a fearful curse (see Genesis 9:18–27). One of these dark days, we ourselves may need restraint and silence from our fellows, so let us offer it cheerfully to those who require it now. Let this be both our family rule and our personal bond: speak evil of no one. The Holy Spirit, however, permits us to condemn sin, and prescribes the way in which we should. It must be done by rebuking fellow believers to their face, not by railing behind their backs. This course is courageous, loving, Christlike—and under God’s blessing it will be useful. Do we shrink back from such work? Then we must lay greater stress on our conscience, and hold ourselves to our obligations—otherwise, by allowing our friends to continue in sin, we ourselves become partakers in it. Countless people have been saved from gross sins by the timely, wise, affectionate warnings of faithful ministers and fellow church members. Our Lord Jesus set us a gracious example of dealing with erring friends in His warning to Peter, the prayer with which He preceded it, and the gentle way in which He bore with Peter’s boastful denial that he ever needed such caution. - C.H. Spurgeon Morning and Evening
My Friend, dear Reader, I must ask you to be truthful and honest with yourself.
Look realistically at your life, not the glowing highlights, but all of it.
Have you been living like the world? Have you redefined what sin is to suit your own way? Are you doing things, saying things, thinking things that God, not you, says are sin or are sinful?
When we redefine sin, we are telling God that His definition was wrong. When we say to ourselves and others "oh that's not that bad" or "it's just a joke" or "it's not hurting anybody" or even "there's nothing wrong with that". As Spurgeon is saying about dealing with things, do we deal with them rightly, according to Scripture or, are we dealing with things the way the world does?
Are you the one trying to cover a multitude of sin in your life by convincing yourself that those things are not sin?
May these things never be!
People look the other way when the reality of idols and idolatry are mentioned. First thoughts and words are that it isn't all that. I'm sorry, in the last 2,000 years did God commission more Apostles to give a revised version of the Bible, saying that God's immovable, unchanging, truths, needed reworking? If so, thousands of preacher's have certainly missed the memo!
We have no right to redefine sin.
Satan redefines sin. There's your first clue Sherlock. There's your clue that you are not listening to the Spirit of God.
If you murmur behind someone's back, that's sin. It isn't anything else.
If you slander people out of your anger, that's sin, that isn't anything else.
If you state that something is not sin, when God unequivocally has stated that it IS sin, that isn't the Spirit of God talking.
If you claim that going to some earthly priest gets you forgiveness, you are listening to Satan and not God. Only by having Salvation through Jesus Christ alone is forgiveness going to happen. By Jesus, through Jesus alone. He IS the Mediator between God and man. Nobody else.
If you claim that a lifestyle is ok, that it isn't going to keep anyone from Heaven, you are redefining sin. The Scriptures state clearly who will NOT enter into Heaven. Those who live a homosexual lifestyle will not enter into Heaven.
If you are not saying anything to one who is falling or is about to fall into sin, why aren't you? If someone was about to be hit by something or say a car or truck you certainly would speak up!
Are you redefining sin to make you feel better?
Are you justifying your new definitions based on how you want life to be like?
These aren't heavy questions, but, they are questions you need to look at daily.
Even Christians are duped into changing how life is looked at, in order to not deal with sin. There are no saved homosexuals. There are saved FORMER homosexuals. Those who used to live in sin, not those who insist that there's nothing wrong with their sin.
My friend, dear reader, God defines sin, it is so egregious that it REQUIRED Jesus to have every single sin piled upon Him on the cross to deal with it. It was so loathsome that His own Father couldn't bare to look at Him. It's not for you to say it's not that bad.
It's not for you to say.
We all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.
Don't compound your sin problem by excusing it. Yes, your sin IS that bad. Yes, your sin DOES need forgiveness by Christ alone. Yes, you DO need to avoid things that God says shouldn't be said, done, seen, thought or anything else.
Look at your life. As Jesus said you will know them by their fruits. What fruits are in your branches?
A surefire way to know if you have idols in your life are what you think, say, do, when they are absent. I saw people enraged because college football wasn't going to play. They were livid. These same Christians are silent about things of the Church or Christianity's troubles in modern times. That tells the world and Jesus what you really think about the suffering of the Saints and where your worship really is.
So what a sport isn't playing. In light of eternity it means nothing! Take that same several hours and try praying instead! Oh? You can't do that! You can't pray for that long! So what you are really saying is you can devote your life to a sport but not to walking with Christ. You can waste several hours being passionate about them but not about your Savior? You won't read your Bible but you will memorize useless statistics on players?
Look at your life. Now is your opportunity to start fixing things. Now is the time to ask Jesus to forgive you for your watering down sin to suit you. Now is the time to start reprioritizing your life.
Now is the time to stop making yourself feel better by taking and redefining your sin into something you can stomach.
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