The world today has a completely skewed picture of justice. Even the churches, who are supposed to teach the law, have largely done away with it. But even those churches who teach that there is no obligation to keep any divine law still understand that some things are bad. Some things shouldn’t be done.They all have a list of sins, arranged by their personal prejudices and opinions, from greatest to least. Usually subconscious, but the list is always present. They react with greater horror to one sin than to another. From my observation, it seems that your average list of cardinal sins in a conservative area would go something like this:
- Child molesting
- Murder
- Homosexuality
- Adultery
- Judging
- Fornication
- Greed
- Bigotry
- Stealing
- Cussing
And so on. Some churches would include dancing, singing, card-playing, reading literature from another denomination, and so on. Of course everyone’s list is a bit different, but if you listen to sermons you’ll see this common thread; yeah, they all tacitly admit that killing is really bad, but after that adultery is the next biggest thing you hear about. It is the one primary sin you hear pounded on, from every pulpit in the land.
But is it the most important commandment? Is it what every preacher SHOULD be talking about, day in, day out? God gave us ten commandments, and He gave them in order. But what is their relative gravity? How serious is, say, fornication compared to, say, owning a dreamcatcher?
If you had to judge a situation and determine who should be punished worse, would you punish a sabbath-breaker or a liar more seriously? Is a doctor who performs abortions is a better person in the eyes of God than a Vegas hooker? And would you say that Charles Manson deserves more or less punishment than someone who owns a statue of Buddha?
These are questions that, to live and reign with Christ, you MUST understand. These are fundamental questions that explain how God looks at sin, which sin is more harmful, and which must be corrected first, and which deserves the most punishment. Which deserves the most “sermon time”, and which is so far down the list that it’s not even worth talking about for now. You MUST learn to look at these things as God does, and put these sins in their relative place.
So which IS the greatest commandment? (and the second, third, and fourth?) Read the rest of this entry »