Think on these things

I can’t seem to get all of this Chick-fil-a stuff out of my head.  What gives me the right to choose which sins are the worst, the ones that will send someone straight to hell? God is not this discerning.

Galatians 5 (Easy-to-Read Version)

¹⁹ The wrong things the sinful self does are clear: committing sexual sin, being morally bad, doing all kinds of shameful things, ²⁰ worshiping false gods, taking part in witchcraft, hating people, causing trouble, being jealous, angry or selfish, causing people to argue and divide into separate groups, ²¹ being filled with envy, getting drunk, having wild parties, and doing other things like this. I warn you now as I warned you before: The people who do these things will not have a part in God’s kingdom. ²² But the fruit that the Spirit produces in a person’s life is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, ²³ gentleness, and self-control. There is no law against these kinds of things.

 

Right there in the list with “committing sexual sin” is “causing people to argue and divide in separate groups”. My daughter-in-law posted a beautiful article by Michael Paul Turner, “5 Reason Why the Church Failed Yesterday” on Facebook. This really hit home for me when he said, “By rallying behind CFA, Christians put an issue above people. And it’s impossible to follow Jesus when issues trump people.” By supporting a CFA Appreciation Day, Christians sent the wrong message. Some said it was supporting freedom of speech. Some said it was supporting traditional marriage. It certainly appears to me that it was “causing people to argue and divide in separate groups”.

My sins fall into the category of lacking self-control; eating too much, exercising too little, speaking before thinking. Do I get a pass because I have a traditional marriage?

^" Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things." Philippians 4:8 NIV