Underground Exiles

It is easy, especially for me, to become indignant over the sin of abortion.  I find it very difficult, however, to become indignant over our own sin. Several years ago while listening to the radio, I heard John MacArthur (not one of my favorite preachers) publicly identify the greatest sin in the world.  It wasn’t abortion.

The greatest sin in the world is nothing less than the violation of the greatest commandment in the world - which means that every second we fail to love God with all of our heart, soul, mind and strength, and love our neighbor as ourselves, we are guilty of the greatest sin in the world.  Not even one person among us has commited a good deed for which we didn’t owe repentance.  Every last thing we do is bogged down in imperfection.

I point this out because the defining characteristic of Christian zeal should not be arrogance (which I am often guilty of).  It should be love.  If we focus only on the sins around us, we’ll become angry and self-righteous.  If we only focus on the sins within us, we’ll become detached and unresponsive to the needs of those around us.  We have to keep an eye on both, which brings me back to James 1.27, where this started.

I hope you noticed that I only focused on the first half of James’ definition of “pure and undefiled religion”.  Now is a good time for me to tackle the second.

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The Idol of Relevance.

Great post from C.J. Mahaney, talking about the contemporary obsession with relevance in the church, and how despite our obsession (or maybe because of it) the church has become irrelevant by our determined efforts to redefine ourselves in ways that are more compelling to the modern world than they are faithful to Christ.  Swing by and give it a read!