In today’s cultural environment, we might need to stop and define sin before addressing arrogant attitudes toward it.
But that is a subject for a different post. Today we want to take to heart Paul’s admonition to the church at Corinth. He said “and you are arrogant! Ought you not rather to mourn?” (1Co 5:2). They had permitted one of their members to “have his father’s wife” without a word from the congregation, but with many “words” from the community: Paul had heard through the proverbial grapevine that the church tolerated behavior that even the unbelieving world despised.
How can a believer determine whether he is acting on a biblical attitude toward sin in a brother, and in the believing community? How can she know that she is properly mourning the sin, rather than tolerating it? Here are several examples of improper attitudes toward sin, that will prevent properly mourning and will undermine the purity of the church.
Superiority. Jesus famously exposed this attitude with a parable. You feel superior about sin when you say Thank you, God, that I am not like this tax collector.
Naivete. If we are shocked that people sin, we are being naive. We reveal our naivete when we say I can’t believe a Christian would do that! or I can’t believe he would do that! or even I can’t believe unbelievers would do that!
Denial. We might not be shocked or surprised that people sin, but we very well may not want to admit that our friend sinned (or we have sinned). If in the face of clear evidence you say He didn’t really do that… or That isn’t really sin (any longer)…, you are in denial.
Justification. Even if we aren’t shocked, and don’t deny it, we may want to offer reasons that the sin is OK, and we should look the other way. You might hear people say You just need to understand his situation or You have to understand what the other person did to him. This is justifying sin — declaring that it is somehow rendered alright — but only One can do that, and it isn’t even the same thing.
Unbelief. We don’t frequently find perfectionism openly touted in the church, but our attitudes and behaviors can reflect it. When people say But we’re saints! and infer the conclusion and thus, we cannot sin, they are demonstrating unbelief. God clearly tells us that believers continue to sin, and continue to need repentance, confession, and forgiveness from the Lord.
License. When people respond to sin in themselves or in others with a glib recitation of the truism Well, God is a forgiving God…, they are engaging in a licentious attitude toward sin. True, God forgives. But for believers or believing communities respond to sin claiming the promise without a sense of repentance and desire for change, they are abusing grace.
Indifference. Feigned humility combines a sincere acknowledgment of our own inadequacy with an ungodly resignation to inaction. Well, only God can change a person’s heart is what indifference can sound like, or Well, someone else in the church will handle that.
Cynicism. Some commentators believe the man in Corinth was “having his father’s wife” in order to improve his inheritance rights. If so, the church might have been motivated to preserve a “good giver” at all costs. Cynicism says things like It’s sinful, but he’s too rich/powerful/influential to jeopardize his goodwill toward the church.
Pride. Evidence suggests that the Corinthians were proud of their “tolerance” of the man’s sin, and saw it as a virtue. When a church says We just need to love on a clear, unrepentant offender, it is being prideful, as though its ways of loving are better than God’s.
We won’t properly guard the church’s purity through discipline if we don’t mourn sin, so be alert to these imposters of a godly perspective.