Observations on Serious Sin
Matthew 16:13-19 says: 13 Now when Jesus came into the district of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, “Who do people say that the Son of Man is?” 14 And they said, “Some say John the Baptist, others say Elijah, and others Jeremiah or one of the prophets.” 15 He said to them, “But who do you say that I am?” 16 Simon Peter replied, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” 17 And Jesus answered him, “Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah! For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven. 18 And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rockI will build my church, and the gates of hellshall not prevail against it. 19 I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosedin heaven.”
The Office of the Keys is the authority given to the church to administer the grace of God to His people. It includes administration of the Sacraments (Holy Baptism and Holy Communion), hearing confession and providing the message of God’s mercy, but also to accomplish the difficult task of addressing unrepentant sin (sin you are not sorry for doing) in the life of the believer. Many times it is simply addressing it, because the person may not realize it. Other times, it means taking it before the spiritual elders of the congregation or sometimes the entire congregation.
This is the prescription that Jesus and other authors of the Bible outline to accomplish the holy, but painful duty of making the church and the world better. It is painful because: (1) no one wants to hear that they have been sinning in a noticeable way, and (2) no one should take pleasure in bringing that message to another Christian.
Here are some observations that I have about how we as a church do or do not go about addressing serious sin:
(1) Pastors, elders, and church leaders want to default to the grace of God. And rightly so. We all need it. We all want to keep fellowship and harmony. But, the message of the cross often is a stumbling block because of the implications of the spilt blood of Christ. The serious cost of the cross is meant to cause pain to the weakness of sin. It will cause a response of rebellion. But that is where the convincing message of Easter triumph is given as a call to something new. People either give in to the rebellion, or they embrace the hope of the new. The church wants to believe in the new without making sure rebellion has ended. We as leaders, then, often contribute to trivializing the anguish Christ endured on our behalf.
(2) Most people do not take kindly to the feeling that they are being ganged-up on. Most people don’t like to feel like the victim of a street attack by a gang of thugs. Often, that can be what it feels like. Sometimes churches handle things badly and it starts that way. But Jesus says that people should never be blind-sided by that. It should always start with a personal, one-on-one conversation. If that doesn’t work, then it is to be taken to a larger group, culminating in coming before the congregation. If this is followed, then the church cannot be accused of a group attack. When Scripture talks about removing the person caught up in serious sin, it is more of an indictment on the congregation that has not followed the words of Jesus than it is on the person committing the sin.
(3) No one wants to believe that a sin is serious enough to be taken before the congregation. Most leaders cannot imagine the firestorm that this could mean. People picking sides. People looking unfavorably upon the leadership. Possible lawsuits. Tension or hostility whenever worship is happening. Threatening emails, conversations, or personal actions. These are all actions that Satan wants to see in response to the conviction of the cross. And if the church plays it badly, Satan isn’t even a part of the conversation. He gets exempted for culpability. If it was serious enough for the early church to address, then it must be serious enough for the church of every age to address.
(4) Church hopping often prevents sin from ever being fully addressed. With so many options, especially in larger towns and cities, Christians understand that, if they want to continue in a particular sin, they can find another place to “hide”. And they will go there. It seems like it would be so much easier to hand our pain over to Christ and let Him have that struggle, but the human condition continues to tell us that people would rather carry the burden on their conscience if their gratification comes on terms that are an acceptable trade-off. Churches must find a way to deal more effectively with the run-and-hide or run-and-restart-somewhere-else paradigm that is almost an automatic response in today’s church.
The human condition means that the road to Heaven is paved with hypocrisy. This is why there is a hidden stress that a lot of pastors and church leaders carry that people do not see. The exact intersection of God’s needed grace and the grade of serious sin is a fluid environment. If you travel down the road expecting to see that intersection always in the same place, across all circumstances, you’ll get lost. That is why the church must always have the prayers of its people. We want to show God’s grace; may the hope of what is released in Christ’s Resurrection always win. Amen.
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