the line between
There has been a good discussion going on over on my mothering message board and I wanted to share my thoughts here.
The question was raised about “sin issues” and if the struggle was “God ordained” or if it was a result of a human failing (in other words, if I continue to struggle with anger and unkind words, is it that God is allowing it or is it that I am not holy enough or that I don’t have enough will power or whatever). That question leads to the issue of how hard we should fight against these issues. What is below is a combining of 2 separate thoughts within the broader conversation.
If you head down the road that “struggle” is our “fault”, you risk falling into self righteousness and a very strong “works” mentality of faith and spirituality. It’s very easy to fall deep into condemnation as well. Condemnation is essentially shame, and shame keeps us separate from God so caution needs to be used anytime the issue of holiness is addressed.
The only thing that would be our “fault” is if we didn’t “struggle” at all. If we embrace our sin and don’t seek God for grace to overcome, then we’d be at fault. We are all going to struggle with temptation and sin issues. None of us will ever overcome each and every one.
The Lord’s Prayer seems to clearly indicate that we can pray that God would not lead us into temptation but deliver us from the day of evil (or evil or evil one depending on which version you use).
So I think we should seek God for deliverance from sin struggles but just like with all prayer, that doesn’t mean that God will answer by removing it now - - or ever. But by God not removing it, he’s not suggesting that we give up the struggle. And by struggle I don’t mean that we use our own powers and strengths and will power to fight sin. But rather we acknowledge sin for what it is, a sickness, and that we constantly turn to the great physician time and again.
Ro 5:1-5Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we[a]have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, 2through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God. 3Not only so, but we also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; 4perseverance, character; and character, hope. 5And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us.
…taking it further: even though I usedit, I’m not fully comfortable with the word “struggle”. Maybe wrestle is a better word. In my opinion, “wrestle” communicates the action of embracing and also “combating”. We can embrace the reality of our station as being sinners in need of mercy and grace without embracing the sin itself. The behavior that should be a result of that wrestling should be deeper communication with and reliance upon God (and other Christ followers as well) as we recognize our inability to “fix” ourselves and therefore our need for healing that can only come through the Spirit of God. When we commune with the Spirit we will gain discernment and insight in how better to persevere through the sin.
I think watchfulness is a good way to put it. I think living in that space of tension between wrestling and resting is part of the role discipline serves. Spiritual formation is, in many ways, learning to live in the “line between” (in the area of sin and in others) rather than landing comfortably on one side or the other. Law and grace are not exclusive of one another but rather, there is a line between that we need to balance - and it’s an ongoing balance that comes, again, through relationship with God and others that comes in part from our spiritual disciplines. This issues is very much one of law and grace.
Just as grace was not absent from the Israelites in the presence of the Law, nor is law absent from us in the presence of amazing grace. The Spirit within is what gives us the discernment and strength to live in that space of tension.
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Good question …
I wanted to add something else into the mix - i hope i am not taking this off track, and i haven’t read the message board you are referring to. With those caveats, here goes…
Sometimes, I think that there are some things that aren’t sin, but just aren’t things we aren’t comfortable with. So sometimes we are struggling with something that is actually just part of our humanity.
For example, anger is something that i don’t think Christians are often very comfortable with, but i don’t think there is anything wrong with anger. In fact i think it is part of being a healthy human being. The deal is not sinning in our anger (which probably unkind words would fall into).
I sometimes hear people praying for God to deal with their anger. I wonder if a better prayer would be: God help me to handle my anger appropriately. I think it is good and healthy for children to see their parents be angry (appropriately) and then deal with it. This comes from someone who grew up not seeing our family get angry, and so i learnt to suppress those emotions. I absolutely agree it needs to be appropriate and for us not to sin in our anger, but anger itself is not bad.
So, back to your post, i wonder if sometimes we are struggling against something that God never asked us to be rid of?
Thanks for your thoughts Rupert. I agree with you but I say a few things.
First, sin is simply falling short of God’s best - - missing the mark is something we hear a lot. So is anger sin? Well, yes and no. Anger is a secondary emotion that emerges when we don’t address the primary emotion. I don’t think that it’s God’s best. but sin as we normally define? no.
Anything that separates us at all from God or others is not something we should embrace…sin or not.
Second, my post intended to deal with things categorized as sin or really anything that keeps us from living God’s best life for us. Murder is sin but we wouldn’t exactly suggest that someone just go ahead and “wrestle” with their sin of murder.
I think the issue had more to do with sinful patterns of behavior or ongoing issues of temptation.
you know, upon further thought, I probably should have said that the topic of what is “sin” needs better attention than what I’m giving it because my response to you Rupert was really poor.
I think my “back thought” behind my post was related to disobeying God by ignoring those things we know to be sin or those things that the Spirit has shown us need attention (stop doing something, do something, pay more attention to something, pay less attention to something, etc)
the short response to your comment would be yes, you are correct, anger is not sin and I do agree that we probably pay more attention to things we see as “sin” than God himself does…and that indeed might be part of the problem in the first place.
and it probably would be good to note that this is a personal issue and my post was not for the purposes of judging others.
I am sort of reminded of the whole AA deal - i guess maybe with recent baptisms and my own struggles on my mind that there is something for me in being honest, in sharing my own personal struggles - in admitting, confessing and owning the stuff that results from my sin. But at the same time opening myself up to the encouragement of being loved, accepted, spurred on by people who are praying, being, living for me and with Jesus and the Spirit who are doing the same thing, praying for me and working within me.
The law is if you like the diagnosis but it is grace that is the cure - the law condems but it is Christ that loves and liberates me - i find that comforting and encouraging but it doesn’t do much in the face of my own brokeness and pain - except it allows me to be that broken being who can’t fix myself, who can’t fix the world in order to fix myself - that would be my preferred outcome, change the world around me so that it gives me what i want.
sometimes i get to the end of myself and decide to reach out for Jesus, that I am hovering on the E and therefore need something beyond me or i reach out to people around me and ask for help. More often i get to the big E and self medicate - do the things that make me feel good, valued, wanted, needed, desired - which has a high all of its own and then a corresponding crash of guilt, shame, pep talking will power reinforcement…
Still i look back say 5 yrs and I am encouraged how much God has been involved in my life and my character and how the journey before me seems to not settle for i’m ok, but to keep plunging back into that pool of honesty, that pool of openess to God and others… if that’s how it all started, realising i couldn’t make restore my humanity by myself then what has changed of that today?
Thanks Paul. All very good thoughts. Acknowledging my sickness should free me and give me hope knowing that there is a physician who brings wholeness. Ignoring or denying the sickness only makes me more and more sick…which is a very helpless feeling. Or even worse, thinking I can fix myself.