One of the podcasts I listen to is just two guys who record an hour-and-a-half fantasy football conversation out of their living room in Philadelphia. Usually, this podcast makes me think more about what quarterbacks I want on one of my teams than about spiritual issues, but last week was a little different.
One of the guys noted that he had offered a wager to a Dallas Cowboys fan regarding the next Cowboys/Eagles match-up. The response he got from the Dallas fan was that he didn't gamble due to religious reasons. This started a conversation in the podcast over whether gambling is officially a sin. A quote that stuck with me was, "Why is God against everything I think is fun?"
Something that really annoys me is that I often feel forced to either take a position for works or against works. Either I have to be the judgmental person who sees just about everything as a sin, or I have to be the permissive person who can't make the judgment that anything is wrong. On this blog I have picked on the judgmental perspective more, but both options are equally frustrating to me.
If someone asked me why everything they wanted to do was a sin, I would probably have a hard time responding because my conception of sin would likely be different from that person's conception of sin. I don't think that God is waiting to automatically strike down everyone who commits some specific action that a lot of people consider a sin, but anything that a person considers fun has the potential to come between that person and God. Things that may appear to be sins aren't and things that may not appear to be sins are.
When Jesus said that it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the Kingdom of Heaven, I do not think he was exaggerating. It would make sense that the man who has more money and the trappings that go with it (power, security, popularity) simply has more things that can get between him and God. Having those things is not sin, but being unwilling to give them up is.
So, for the moment, I think that just about everything can be a sin. Whether you put it before God and let it become sin is another story.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
4 comments:
Good points. I concur. : )
Aha!
This throws a wrinkle into the whole evangelical system. It is much easier to have a list and stick to it - black and white.
But sin is more complex than that. We have freedom and responsibility. Actions and motivations should always be checked.
I agree, what is a sin to one person (gambling) may not be to another person. I have been asked if smoking is a sin before, but smoking is not addressed in the bible. However, smoking is an addiction, like gambling and drinking, that can lead you astray from living for God with all of your heart.
Yup! What you guys said! :)
Post a Comment