Many teachings of the Bible are misunderstood by people who cannot see that God is love.
The concept of an eye for an eye and a life for a life was always used by desert sheikhs to de-escalate family feuds. You can't win by slaughtering your opponents, you will just wind up with a higher blood debt to pay. On the other hand, every one of your casualties cancels out one of theirs. Better to sit down and talk as soon as blood is shed.
Eternal punishment is also misunderstood. Eventually, all will repent and be saved. God has all the time in the world for you to come around and quit punishing yourself.
Smoking a pack of cigarettes every day: probably a sin.
Smoking (burning/sacrifice) sacred tobacco to celebrate the creation of a new life, and to wish the child well even to the sacrifice of your own health: probably a good deed.
Sin is less about what you do than why and how you do it.
Petty children think Parents are hypocrites. I'm an adult, I can make a wrong decision and get drunk any night of the week. Or I check with my wife, and I go out with a buddy and get hammered. Why? Cause we'll both take care of the others responsibilities so that we can responsibly be very irresponsible.
Life is a test.
A test to see if God can trust you with the power to do great evil.
Why would he give you eternal life in his Kingdom otherwise?
Would you give an ungrateful evil little shit kid eternal life?
[–] 16982335? 1 point -1 points 0 points (+0|-1) ago (edited ago)
But, what one person considers a "sin", other people see as normal human behavior. (e.g. taking drugs). Why should I repent for something that is not wrong? Marijuana should be legal. I break the law by smoking it. It's a bad law. I won't repent for doing that.
[–] 16983588? ago
The way that is cleared is allowing the fundamentals of God's revealed will in his commandments define what sin truly is. The moral law of God is focused on how one respects God as Lord and creator to whom we owe allegiance, and on how we treat our neighbor. Sin has to do with inter-relational matters of utmost importance, not do's and don'ts of what goes into the body.
[–] 16983091? ago
Relativism.
What is considered sin, to God, is objective, not subjective. Sin is sin is sin. It does not change over time.
[–] 16984965? ago
So, a plant that God put on earth is sinful?
[–] 16982385? [S] 0 points 1 point 1 point (+1|-0) ago
I think there are temptations always around us, it's not up to man to decide the 5 W's of sin...we're born into it. The laws of man aren't always, rarely are ever, aligned with Gods. That's my perspective. I like how the Author of the Article says: We’re tempted every day in a thousand different directions. Therefore, we must constantly reorient ourselves back toward God, seeing him anew and pursuing him afresh. As Martin Luther noted, “When our Lord and Master Jesus Christ said ‘Repent,’ he intended that the entire life of believers should be repentance.”
I know I am one person, but I do not think you smoking weed or whatever is wrong, unhealthy in my eyes, but not wrong.
[–] 16983730? 0 points 2 points 2 points (+2|-0) ago (edited ago)
Plus one for bringing in Luther, he had a lot of wisdom on sin and temptation for the Christian.
I still marvel at the paradox that the world and, to be honest, most of the church, mainly if not exclusively focus on sins as outward behaviors, because they're cut and dry, black and white, and easily identifiable in others (downstream legalisms, judgmentalisms). Meanwhile the teachings of the New Testament are clearly focused on sin as a matter of the heart, of overall attitude, and the more complex dynamics of how we relate to one another. When one digs into Jesus' teachings and sees what he's really getting at, the heart is exposed in all its falsehoods and hidden idolatries and hypocrisies... in that condition how could we even have time or energy to wring hands over the sinful behavior of everyone else in this hyper tabloid culture?