Respectable Sins

"Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye? How can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when all the time there is a plank in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye." — Matthew 7:3-5

For our Sunday School class we've been reading a book called "Respectable Sins." Let me tell you, it's a kick in the pants, for a variety of reasons. But chief among them is that it puts the pressure back on believers to be honest and, better yet, repentant about the ways we fall short. As the book points out in its early chapters, that hasn't been something the modern church has focused on much lately.

In the book, author Jerry Bridges puts the focus squarely on us. He also makes the point that while we've gotten good at identifying the big sins, the smaller ones have slipped from focus. Things like gossip, anger, envy, and impatience might not be big headline grabbers, but they are all ways we fall short. That's what sin is, falling short and missing the mark.

Worse yet, we've gotten good at pointing the finger at others and letting ourselves off the hook. One of the most haunting examples of this was following the hurricane that ravaged Hati a few years back. I was watching CNN and they did a story with a Christian minister from that nation whose church was destroyed. Despite the destruction, he was praising God and worshipping all the blessings He'd bestowed upon them with his congregation on the rubble of his church. It was a beautiful and moving portrait of faith in tough times.

Right after that, CNN transitioned to a message from Pat Robertson, claiming to represent American Christians, saying that the hurricane in Hati was a punishment from God for the nation do to its Godlessness, satan worship, and homosexuality. I was heartbroken as I heard his words, not because it had a note of truth but because of how wrong it was. It's the same way I felt Monday night watching the filmmakers from "God Loves Uganda" talking about Christians missionaries who've worked in Uganda to pass a law condemning homosexuals to death. This is not what the Bible calls us to, and it's not how we're supposed to respond. Yet too often it is how it happens, and how the non-Christian world sees us.

What has been convicting about this book is that it's not only disheartening to see that, it is a sin. We all sin, and focusing on the big sins of others while overlooking your own short-coming is missing the mark.

My wife commented after a recent sermon about how refreshing it was that our pastor talked about the ways he misses the mark in his own life while exhorting us, and himself, to do better. It was a refreshing bit of honesty that reframed the idea and the message. That is how we should live as Christians, acknowledging how we fall short, exhorting ourselves and others to do better, and modeling the Gospel. But it's not.

I can't wait to see how this book ends, but no matter what else it says I already have plenty of new challenges to live up to.