Sin, Magic, General Rules, and the Great Commandment

Over the course of some 37 years of church and denominational ministry, I have repeatedly encountered people who have a rather magical perspective on sin. Well, you may understand that better if I were to use the term superstitious. They believe that sin is some kind of nebulously defined legal code that God has only revealed in part, only to a few, or otherwise developed with no guiding principle. Understanding sin is something like a crap shoot at a gambling table, where one tosses a marker only to discover after that fact what the results will be.

It’s kind of like giving someone flowers one thinks are pretty, not knowing how the gift will be interpreted, as specific flowers and specific colors may have different meanings within different cultural circles. A chrysanthemum may be seen as a beautiful flower or a symbol of death. How then, can I figure out what meaning it has to God? Just so we are clear, none of my seminary classes focused on how to define what is and is not sin. The curriculum was not designed to discern some arbitrary scheme by which God has determined that which is and is not sin, that for which we are or are not held accountable.

On the other hand, there have been attempts to summarize God’s will, such that anything that does not fall in concert with God’s will is effectively sin. After all, the basic definition of sin is that which runs counter to God’s will. John Wesley established the following summary as General Rules for the church: 1. Do no harm. 2. Do all the good you can. 3. Stay in love with God, participating in all the sacraments of the church. Jesus had an alternated take that Wesley’s rules attempt to follow: Love God with all you are and love your everyone else as yourself. Jesus declared that these two rules encompass the complete commands of God in the Law and Prophets.

There are some significant implications from these summaries. The first is that all those culture war issues that have divided so many churches over the generations have no bearing. We’ve been up in arms over which music styles are appropriate for worship since at least the days of Luther. Those concerns have never been more than a distraction. We’ve rambled on and on about appropriate clothing to wear to church, forgetting that Jesus and his disciples likely had no more than one or two garments, with no choice to speak of in the matter. We’ve waxed eloquent on going to movie theaters, watching TV, means of transportation, appropriate foods, and saying grace before or after a meal. None of that really matters. What matters is whether our words, attitudes, and actions flow from loving God and communicate love for others. Are we doing harm? Are we doing good, all the good we can do, all the good we know how to do?

If you are concerned about whether something is or is not sin, you don’t really need to find a Bible verse to back up your position so much as to ask how this harms or helps others around us. Our choice of coffee, our choice of where to shop, our choice of how much to tip, our choices regarding how we speak to those who would serve us, our choice of whom we include or exclude may be much more relevant in determining what is or is not sin that so many other issues we are wont to bring up.

Some might say this is an exercise in mindfulness—paying attention to how our words, attitudes, and actions impact others, in this case. In Jesus’ model prayer, it is expressed in terms of “Thy will be done on earth as in heaven.” Rather than considering sin as what would keep us out of heaven, perhaps we should be much more focused on bringing that life of heaven into our daily practice of living. As we live out God’s will in terms of loving one another as Christ has loved us, we create a new reality around us in which the priciples of that heavenly life invade our earthly reality.

It’s not magic. It’s not arbitrary. It’s not finding some hidden list. It’s just about love and doing as much good as we possibly can. If we would do that, we don’t have to worry about the other.


— ©Copyright 2022, Christopher B. Harbin

http://www.sermonsearch.com/contributors/104427/

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