I was sitting at the kitchen table this morning eating breakfast, and I thought I'd pull out my Bible. Before I get into the topic for this post, you need to know something that I don't talk about much.
For those of you who were raised in a traditional Christian church, you'll know what I mean by this next phrase: "Quiet Time." Though I don't argue about its value, it's just not something I typically do. If I'm going to be totally transparent, I've hated it since I was made to do it at church camp as a kid.
It was one of those things that we were rewarded for doing (and thus, shamed in a way for not doing) all through my years of Sunday School. "Read my Bible daily," was one of the check marks you noted on your tithing envelope each week and I always wanted to do everything right.
I didn't do it very often so either I lied (definitely not "doing everything right") or didn't check the box (which meant I wasn't a very good Christian - or at least it felt that way). Either way I was screwed.
However, this morning I decided to be a good, little Christian girl (also a lie, as I'm nowhere near "little") and read my Bible. I didn't know what to read - one of the reasons I tend not to do it. I get overwhelmed.
So, I prayed about it. I don't know if it was a random thought or God speaking to me, but "Hebrews 4" jumped into my thoughts. I decided to see what it said.
The first couple of verses were very, very relevant - about rest and its importance. Because I've had major issues with sleep since my Mom passed away two months ago yesterday (like often sleeping only a couple of hours a night), it was especially timely.
But I kept on reading.
It was at the end of the chapter that made me pause, specifically verse 15. "For our high priest [Jesus] is able to understand our weaknesses. He was tempted in every way that we are, but He did not sin." (ICB version)
I have wondered about this idea for decades. I feel that most people would define "sin" as a failure to keep the rules, particularly moral rules, laws, etc. This does have a Biblical basis because in the Old Testament sinning actually is breaking the volumes of rules that stemmed from the Ten Commandments.
This is where it doesn't match up. Jesus broke those rules, and thus "sinned," many times during His life. Some He broke deliberately. One prime example is when He healed people on the Sabbath, a big no-no in that culture.
Let me say this before I get into a controversial idea... I do believe that God put so many of the rules we live by into place. I mean, it's definitely a good idea - and helpful to everyone - if we believe that murder is wrong or that adultry is harmful.
However, is this what this verse is talking about? Or is sin much deeper, though actually much simpler?
I could be very wrong in this and I'll be pondering it for a minute and hopefully come back to clarify more later... but what if "sin" is actually talking about not following God's lead, not listening to what He wants a person to do, not obeying God in a much more personal way than following a set of rules that change through time and from culture-to-culture.
The verse I quoted talks about Jesus being tempted. We think about being tempted to break rules - steal some money that no-one would miss, have an affair, lie on a church tithe envelope... If so, what about the time He was tempted to lose His temper? If so, He definitely sinned because He was flat-out furious at the money-changers in the Temple. He lost it big-time.
Blatant examples of Jesus being tempted were when satan came to Him and offered Him food when He was starving, the chance to see if God really would keep Him safe no matter what He did, and worldly kingdoms to a man who was God and had everything, but no-one else could recognize it.
Another, much more important one was when He knew He was headed on the road to being crucified - an incredibly painful and horrible death. He knew that He could get out of it, stop at any time. But He didn't do so.
In those cases and all throughout His life, He did what God the Father told Him to do and not always what He wanted - or even needed.
The thing is, if we do what God the Father, through the Holy Spirit, tells us to do, all the other stuff will fall into place. We will run from the vast majority of what we typically call sins (that might just be man-made rules).
The end-result is the same... but the core belief is different.
And I just realized - it does tie into the one of the themes of this blog... not judging others. If we all follow God's lead and don't constantly worry about what others are saying, doing, even thinking, and then make up rules for them to follow to behave like we think they should, then we can leave the judgment to God and just concern ourselves with following Him.
Wouldn't that be so much better than following a bunch of rules - simply following Him?
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