All sins separate us from God. One sin is not more important or worse than another. We tend to emphasize certain sins rather than see them all the same. We are all born sinners in a broken world because of Adam and Eve (The Bible. New Living Translation. Gen. 3: 1-24; Rom. 5:17). There is one sin, though, that we are encouraged to run from: sexual immortality (I Cor. 6:18) because it is against our bodies. Nevertheless, we are all traveling in the same boat in the same direction. Still, God’s grace is sufficient and redeems our sins when someone repents and accepts Jesus (Acts 3:19). This is because of His love for us.
Let us imagine for a minute that we are all on this proverbial boat I mentioned. We cannot navigate the treacherous waters alone. When we begin to sink, God’s love and grace, through His Son Jesus, throws us a life preserver. We can accept it, be saved, or reject it and continue to sail down the river of destruction in the boat of self-righteousness on a disaster course.
Once we repent of our sins and accept Christ, we are forgiven forever and receive the gift of the Holy Spirit (Acts 2:38), who guides us for the rest of our journey. We still have the temptation to sin, but with God’s help we can overcome them because we are victors in Christ (Col. 2:14). We are not to continue in our old life or return to the boat but be renewed every day to the likeness of Christ (Rom. 6:1-2).
We can also experience joy and a piece of His kingdom while we wait for our eternal home, but we are not meant to pursue happiness in this life as a destination. C.S. Lewis put it this way, “If you think of this world as a place intended simply for our happiness, you find it quite intolerable: think of it as a place of training and correction, and it’s not so bad” (Lewis 52). Happiness comes from our circumstances; joy comes from our relationship with Christ, regardless of our circumstances.
There are many different beliefs, and we do not all agree, but no matter what our neighbor believes, we are still called to love them (Lev. 19:18; Matt. 22:39; Rom. 13:8). In this way, we honor God. Above all else – we are to love God first. When our priorities are correctly aligned, it becomes easier to love others as we see them in God’s image (Gen. 1:27; 2 Cor. 3:18).
“We love each other because he loved us first” (I John 4:19, emphasis added).
Works Cited
Lewis, C.S., God in the Dock. Eerdmans, 1994.
The Bible. NLT Study Bible. New Living Translation Version. Tyndale, 2008.
Faith Walk Ministries, Inc. 