The Diminishing of Sin
Proverbs 7. Has the notion of grace been pushed so far that we have forgotten why we need it in the first place?
3,000 years ago, Jerusalem
An elderly man sits and looks through the lattice of his large window that overlooks his neighborhood. The sun is setting over the hills of mud-brick houses and palm trees below.
The winding streets that were filled with vendors, animals, and people passing through earlier in the day have quieted down. He used to be one of those people, but here he sits in his old age watching the world below to pass the time.
As the light continues to fade, he sees a woman nearby walk outside of her house like she would any other time; adjusting her scarf, nodding hello to the few people she passes by. He has seen this attractive woman many times before, but she has no idea that he exists.
She doesn’t know that earlier that day he watched her husband pack up a horse with a small trunk, a food basket, and water skins which could only mean one thing: he was going on another trip.
The old man watches the young woman round the corner, but then she stops. She quickly looks behind her; double checking that no one is watching her. A grin subtly crosses her face when she believes the coast is clear. The old man sighs as she continues on her way.
Time passes. Night has fallen. A few torches dimly light the street below as crickets chirp. His maid grabs his empty dinner plate and hands him the same blanket that she does every night.
He sits in silence for a while longer; something he’s gotten quite good at.
Eventually a new shadow appears. He squints as he leans forward. The woman from before is coming back; gently leading the young man’s hand that she is holding.
The young man, who is someone different than the last one she brought over, appears to pause before her front door. He looks over his shoulder; back the way they came. He takes a small step away from her, saying something to the woman who doesn’t let go of his hand.
With the moon fully out now, the old man’s eyes are adjusting. She shushes the young man and makes a gesture to the dark house as if to say, “See? The house is dark, he’s not here!”
She then whispers into the young man’s ear. He stretches his neck to verify that the house is, in fact, dark and turns his gaze back to the corner.
As the night wind gently blows across the old man’s face, he holds his breath. He wonders if maybe, just maybe, this young man would listen to the internal hesitation and not do what the others in that exact same doorway had done before…
But no. The young man slips inside the house, the door closes quietly, and the old man sighs once more. Saddened by what he just witnessed and all of the implications that that decision meant for the young man, he decides that he has had enough people watching for the day.
Sin has spiritual, self (personal), and societal consequences.
My short story above is based on Proverbs 7 (linked below). It is written as a warning to the young man and ends with this statement: “Her house is the way to the grave, going down to the chambers of death.”
Death? I remember thinking as I read this chapter last week, “That seems a little extreme, doesn’t it?”
After thinking on it for .2 seconds I realized, “Of course that’s not extreme. If the godly way is the way of LIFE, it would make sense that the ungodly way would lead to death.” I repented and moved on.
However, that momentary gut reaction of, “...really? Isn’t that a bit dramatic?” gave me a flashback to my past. It was a feeling I felt quite often towards God’s rules during my lukewarm period in my twenties. A period, I might add, that was riddled with deconstruction, apathy, and new age garbage (see my last post). In other words: it was not good.
Here’s the truth: the relationship between how a person views sin and how prone someone is to deconstruction / pulling away from the faith (whether they realize it or not) is inextricably linked.
Let’s start with some facts that will set the scene for why Proverbs 7, despite not being an iconic chapter like Psalm 23, is the perfect one to illustrate the massive problem I am observing in many Christians today: the diminishing of sin.
First, we know that the young man knows she is married (vs 19).
Second, we can confidently assume these characters were all Jewish. This means they knew what vows were made at weddings, The 10 Commandments, and (probably) the plethora of other verses, laws, and cultural customs that all essentially said the same thing when it comes to adultery: “Don’t do it.”
Third, we know he needed convincing, so there must’ve been warning signs going off.
Fourth, we know this chapter was written as a warning to the young man, but as with all verses in the Bible, everyone can lear-
“Now hold on!” The secular world interjects. “Don’t gloss over this! Why is the young man the focus instead of the one actually cheating? It’s not the young man’s marriage. He’s not breaking any vows. This was an encounter between two consenting adults. Maybe she and her husband had some kind of arrangement! And why is ‘the adulterous woman’ cast as the villain in Proverbs so often!? What a perfect example of the oppressive sexism -”
OKAY! Okay, enough of that. I’m taking the blog back now.
As easy as it is to roll our eyes at some of the world’s critiques (and those are real comments I have heard before), but I believe there is a question in there that is actually quite important for this message: Why is the young man the main focus of this proverb instead of the woman who is the instigator (vs. 10)?
The young woman not being the focus of the proverb is actually the point. There is a natural human tendency to focus singularly on the biggest offender in a situation instead of broadening out the scope to acknowledge all of the sin involved.
It sounds something like this: “Sure, Tom helped with the robbery, but Billy was the one who organized it and shot at people!” Or, “I know Carol wasn’t always the kindest to her husband, but that doesn’t give him the green light to cheat!”
Now am I advocating for shooting at or cheating on people? Of course not. But if we are honest with ourselves, we all have glossed over someone’s sin because it is small in comparison to someone else’s sin.
But why do we do that? And how does it tie into Proverbs 7 or the Church today?
For starters, I believe our shortened attention spans sometimes only allow us to focus on just one thing before we have to mentally zip off to something else. I also believe our ever-increasing access to so many horrific stories in the news makes it almost impossible for little things to pack a punch anymore; like how a 3,000 year old version of “the pool boy sleeping with a stay at home wife story” just doesn’t seem to strike a chord like it used to.
But God (through Solomon) is trying to remind us today that this young man’s actions were a big deal. SO BIG, in fact, that it would lead to his death. DEATH! The Bible says that giving in to temptation is an active choice that actively separates us from God. When we choose to move forward with a sin of any size, we are giving God the middle finger whether we think we are or not. With our actions we are saying some version of the same distrustful thing Eve did: “I’m not so sure this thing God told me not to do is actually that bad…”
It’s worth asking: Do we (as individuals) actually believe that sin is that bad?
Look around. Do we think the Church as a whole actually believes this today? Or has the notion of grace been pushed so far that we have forgotten why we need it in the first place?
Have we over-twisted the "relationship over religion” mantra to the point where people have forgotten they can’t actually be in a relationship with God as He intended if they have not truly repented (to turn away from, commit to not doing again) of their sins?!
I certainly didn’t believe those things during my lukewarm chapter. I started buying into the cultural lie that it doesn’t really matter if we or others sin because “we have access to unlimited forgiveness.” I didn’t know that repentance (which leads to actually being forgiven) was a real commitment to turn completely away from the sin instead of a quick and casual phrase I tacked on to the end of prayers, like, “And please forgive me for all my sins, amen.”
This young man made a decision that had spiritual, self (personal), and societal consequences. All three of these things are very important to God.
So let’s play this “smaller sin” out: The young man gave the middle finger to God even though he knew all God had done to get the Israelites into the Promised Land (which they were in at the time of this writing). He also knew the law God had put in place for His people. So until the young man did the proper sacrifices and protocols, he was not in good favor with God (which is not a place any of us want to be).
He put both his and her life at risk because if the husband found out he could’ve had them both stoned to death. That was the law at the time.
But even if the young man didn’t get caught, his actions didn’t honor God’s institution of marriage. That couple was not better off because of what he and the woman did. The young man could’ve gotten an STD that perhaps he would later on pass on to his innocent wife. He could’ve unknowingly gotten this woman pregnant and that child could’ve potentially grown up in poverty and without a dad if the husband (by a miracle) kicked her out instead of reporting her.
The young man also started down the slippery slope of seeking instant gratification. He illegally (against the law God created) accessed this woman’s body. God gave this young man an appropriate and legal (godly) way to have sex: marriage. Sex was designed by God to be the fruits of the labor that a marriage (which is difficult at times!) produces.
This young man didn’t have to rise to the occasion and earn a fathers blessing for a bride. He didn’t have to go to work, provide a house, or provide food for this woman like he would have had to if she was his wife. He didn’t have to learn patience or compassion or any of the other things marriage teaches us.
All of those things are good not only for the young man’s individual character, but also for society. Why? Because “society” is made up of a bunch of individual people. The hearts and the character of those people is what shapes a society.
And let’s remember: the society this young man was a part of was… the Israelites! The people that were supposed to be God’s shining example to the world on how to live as followers of the one true God and eventually help bring the whole world back to Him. Something we as Christians are still tasked with today.
Was his sin as severe as the woman’s? No - no one is arguing that. But was his sin still bad? Yes. Were there consequences of that decision even if they weren’t clearly noticeable to the young man? Yes.
Most importantly: Is there anything out there that God has ordained a sin that He’s fine with us tolerating in our lives? Absolutely not.
If we don’t understand how bad sin is (and honestly I barely scratched the surface, especially from the spiritual side), then we will never truly appreciate what Jesus did for us. No wonder so many people are shaping Jesus into being “an ascended master” or “a progressive social justice warrior” or anything other than the truth of Him being Son of God who was crucified for our sins. Why? Because they don’t believe sin is a problem that we need saving from.
If we actively say “yes” to something in our lives that God has said “no” to; if we don’t believe that every sin has actual spiritual, self, and societal consequences, then the hard truth is that we aren’t a follower of Jesus.
My past self didn’t want to hear this and most people out there don’t want to hear it either. But it’s worth repeating: a follower of Jesus… follows Jesus.
A king over your life is the KING over your life; it’s not a democracy where you get an equal vote on what counts as a sin. What He says goes; whether we agree or not.
Jesus said, “Repent!” way more often than he said, “To be honest, this ‘sin’ thing really isn’t that big of a deal. Honestly, my dad just makes up a bunch of crap sometimes to show that He’s in charge. You’ll be forgiven anyway, so just do whatever you feel is best.” (which, of course, He never said once).
I heard someone say: “In order to hear the good news, you gotta hear the bad news first.”
Well, the bad news is that sin is bad. The good news is that we have an amazing, merciful, patient, and loving God that has given us a way to stand innocent before His judgement and is powerful enough to help us actually overcome our sin earthside. However, that is very good news for another blog.
Bible chapter: Proverbs 7
Worship Song: Who You Say I Am
Quick video: What Does it Mean to Sin? By The Bible Project
Sermon: A Call to Repentance
From Miki:
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