When we look at most cultural issues from a Christian perspective, there usually seems to be two sides to every argument. When we look at the issue of abortion, there are the pro-lifers and the pro-choicers. The issue of same-sex marriage has been a hot topic recently in Christian circles. We are labeled as homophobes and bigots because most people who consider themselves Christians are opposed to the idea of same-sex marriage. Then you have those who consider homosexuality a normal, natural state. The issue of alcohol has two camps – prohibitionists, and those who consider the consumption of alcohol to be well within the scope of living a Christian life. We have even taken sides on some of the basics of Christianity. Consider the subject of faith, or Faith, depending on which camp you reside in. There are those who consider faith to be a verb – something which is exercised. There are others who consider Faith as a noun – something which one possesses and uses to obtain all that God wishes for every Christian. There are people on both sides of the fence when it comes to the subject of grace as well. There are those who believe that Gods grace will cover any sin, therefore it’s OK to sin as often as you like. God’s grace will not hold the sin against you. Then there are those who believe that grace alone is not enough. One must also follow myriads of rules, regulations, “suggestions” and other things so that God will know you are serious enough to warrant His grace.
Why do we so often relegate such things to either one side or the other? We polarize nearly everything that is spiritual to the point that we often see those who think differently than us as “The Enemy” – even though they are Christians. It’s often difficult for us to see any other opinion than our own because we tend to be “black and white” types of people. We see sin as sin and even a little sin is enough to affect our lives. This is because we are made in the image of God and He sees sin the same way. The difference is that while God does not tolerate sin, He has great compassion for the sinner. Another difference is that we often don’t recognize our own propensity for sinning. We are quick to point out the moral failures of others while overlooking our own shortcomings. This is what Jesus was talking about in Matthew 7 when He said “Do not judge, or you too will be judged.” As Christians, we must do some judging, or we will treat sin and holiness the same way. We must judge between right and wrong. We are taught to beware of false teachers, which we would not recognize unless we were judging their actions and motives. What Jesus says in Matthew 7 is to not judge others when we ourselves have sin in our lives. We often don’t see the sin in our own lives. Or we choose to overlook it because someone else’s sin is much worse than our own. So we split into two camps. Ours and Theirs.
What if there were another option? What if there were hundreds of options instead of just the two we so often see? I think that there are. I think that we can reach a compromise in most instances without compromising on sinfulness. Those of us who have children know this instinctively already, although it may not be something that has reached conscious thought yet. When two of my children come to me with a misunderstanding, I usually have two stories. The conversation would go something like this:
Kristen: “Dad, Heather broke the lamp in the living room! She just knocked it over on purpose. I saw her do it!”
Heather:”No I didn’t! It wasn’t there when I came in. She put it in front of me so I would trip on it!”
Kristen: “No I didn’t! You just pushed it over! I watched you do it.”
Heather: “You pushed it in front of me. It wasn’t even there when I came in the room!”
What you can determine from this conversation is that there is probably an element of truth in someone’s story, but neither of these stories is the truth. Usually, it goes something like this: Heather came into the room and was practicing her ballet. As she twirled across the room, Kristen came into the room and saw her twirl into the lamp, which Heather didn’t see during her twirl. In order to avoid getting in trouble for breaking something by being careless, Heather blamed Kristen for placing the lamp in her path.
There is a lesson to be learned here for us as well. Two sides to a story are often not enough to determine the real truth. It’s easy for someone to be vehemently against homosexuality until their son or daughter tells them that they are gay. It’s easy for someone who has never dealt with an alcoholic to justify drinking based on the Bible. But to someone who has dealt with alcohol abuse, the verses read entirely different. Circumstances often change points of view. When it comes to grace, the same is true. It’s easy to be critical of others when we think of ourselves more highly than we ought. The Bible makes it clear that we all have come short of Gods idea of “good”. None of us can say that we are better than others because we have all missed it. The good news is that Gods extends His grace to us.
Grace is often misunderstood, even by mature Christians. We still hear Christians talk about what we have to do to be Christians. Not the commands of Jesus, but the man-made things that we must do in order to be worthy of God’s grace. Grace is grace. It’s not something that we have to earn. In fact, grace that is earned is not grace at all.
The next time we feel compelled to take sides on an issue with another Christian, what if we were to do what Jesus commanded: Take care of our own sin and let God deal with everyone else’s. It’s amazing how unified we could become if we were to only do that simple thing. Just deal with our own sin. After all, isn’t that hard enough?