I AM ALLOWED TO DO ANYTHING

Christianity or should say the Christian Church has come under fire for being outdated and behind the times.  So churches have adapted and changed their worship services with more updated music and more informal services.  The greatest complaint though seems to be that the church does not practice what it preaches.  The church preaches love but calls for members to live Godly Lives.  Today, I begin a series on what it means to be a Christian.

Christians should not practice sin.  (Romans 6)

There is so much confusion about sin today.  It was not much different in the days after Jesus left the earth and the Apostles were teaching Christians what sin is.  Paul states in I Corinthians 10:23, we are allowed to do anything, but not everything is beneficial or good for us and for others.  Paul concludes his remarks by stating that whether we eat or drink or whatever we do, we are to do all to the glory of God.  So sin has something to do with relationships.

   

           The United Methodist Church defines sin like this under United Methodist Beliefs:

"Genesis 1:27 asserts that we've been made in the image of the Creator. Like God we have the capacity to love and care, to communicate, and to create. Like God we're free, and we're responsible. We've been made, says Psalm 8, "a little lower than God" and crowned "with glory and honor." We believe that the entire created order has been designed for the well-being of all its creatures and as a place where all people can dwell in covenant with God.

But we do not live as God intends. Again and again we break the covenant relationship between God and us. We turn our backs on God and on God's expectations for us. We deny our birthright, the life of wholeness and holiness for which we were created. We call this alienation from God,sin.

A distinction should be made between sin and sins. We use the word sins to denote transgressions or immoral acts. The issue is sin in the singular. Sin is our alienation from God, our willful act of turning from God as the center of life and making our own selves and our own wills the center. From this fundamental sin our various sins spring. Sin is estrangement of at least four kinds:

Separation from God

Sin is breaking the covenant, separating ourselves from the One who is our origin and destiny. It's trying to go it alone, to be out of touch with the God who is the center of life. Based on the story in Genesis 3, the church has described this break in dramatic terms: the Fall. 

Separation from other people

In our sin we distance ourselves from others. We put ourselves at the center of many relationships, exploiting others for our own advantage. Instead of loving people and using things, we love things and use people. When confronted with human need, we may respond with token acts of kindness or with lip service or perhaps not at all. Toward some people and some groups, we're totally indifferent or actively hostile. Sin is a denial of our common humanity and our common destiny on this one small planet.

Separation from the created order

In our sin we separate ourselves from the natural environment. Greedily we turn upon it, consuming it, destroying it, befouling it. As natural resources dwindle, as possibilities increase for long-term damage to the atmosphere and seas, we pause to wonder. But our chief concern is for our own survival, not for the beauty and unity of all God's creation.

Separation from ourselves
We turn even from our own center, from the goodness, happiness, and holiness that is our divinely created potential. Sometimes it seems that there are two wills warring within us. As Paul put it, "I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate" (Romans 7:15).