Heresy : You Can love Sin & Still Be In.

The last heresy I will talk about is this: Telling Christians it is OK to live in sin.

This happened even way back in the Old Testament. I quoted earlier the bible passages where God complains that the false prophets did nothing to turn the people away from their sins, so I will not repeat that here.

The New Testament is also clear that God has standards of behaviour for his children.

John the Baptist preached:  ⁸ Prove by the way you live that you have repented of your sins and turned to God.” (Matthew 3.8)

Jesus said (just to take one instance out of many): (Matthew 28.19) “¹⁹ Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in^[a] the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, ²⁰ and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”

So there is something to be obeyed, there is a way of life that marks out people who have repented. This way of life is difficult for two main reasons. Our human nature is corrupted and doesn’t want to do it. Our society is corrupted and will put social pressure on us to conform to its ways. Here are some Bible verses on that:

Galatians 5 (it is worth reading through the whole chapter but here are a few key verses)

¹⁶ So I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the sinful nature. ¹⁷ For the sinful nature desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the sinful nature. They are in conflict with each other, so that you are not to do whatever^[c] you want. ¹⁸ But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law.

 ¹⁹ The acts of the sinful nature are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; ²⁰ idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions ²¹ and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God.

1 Peter 4 : “³ You have had enough in the past of the evil things that godless people enjoy—their immorality and lust, their feasting and drunkenness and wild parties, and their terrible worship of idols.

 ⁴ Of course, your former friends are surprised when you no longer plunge into the flood of wild and destructive things they do. So they slander you.⁵ But remember that they will have to face God, who will judge everyone, both the living and the dead. 

1 John 2.3 : “³ And we can be sure that we know him if we obey his commandments. ⁴If someone claims, “I know God,” but doesn’t obey God’s commandments, that person is a liar and is not living in the truth. ⁵ But those who obey God’s word truly show how completely they love him. That is how we know we are living in him. ⁶ Those who say they live in God should live their lives as Jesus did.”

2 Timothy 3.12 warns us that it will be hard to live good lives in a corrupt world: “^3 12 In fact, everyone who wants to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted, 

John 15.18: Jesus warned his disciples: “ ¹⁸ “If the world hates you, keep in mind that it hated me first. ¹⁹ If you belonged to the world, it would love you as its own. As it is, you do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the world. That is why the world hates you. ²⁰ Remember what I told you: ‘Servants are not greater than their master.’^[a] If they persecuted me, they will persecute you also.”

You will remember that the people who persecuted Jesus were the religious establishment of his day. It is not surprising that in our day anyone who follows Jesus will find that many of the established church leaders are their opponents rather than their friends.

Sadly large numbers of ministers, priests, bishops and archbishops and even whole sections of denominations are acting just like the false prophets of long ago and not turning their own church people, let alone the nation, from their sins.

Tragically when the “acceptable conduct” of the society they live in is different to God’s clear commands repeated throughout the Bible, they side with society and against God. They seek peace with their society by conforming to it, when they should be acting as God’s agents in transforming it. (As I said earlier, they may be ardent crusaders for some political cause but their work is fashioned and empowered by the principles and outlook of this fallen world, not from the Bible. One giveaway will be that they will condone things the Bible repeatedly condemns.)

Worse still they often become propaganda merchants for the things their society loves even though God says he hates them. They will try to silence, sideline or throw out of the church anyone who accurately points out what God’s standard of behaviour is.

Do not be fooled by them! Do not give in to them! Read the Bible for yourself and obey its commands.