Wednesday, June 13, 2007
SIN!
MSNBC recently asked: "Is a virtual affair real-world infidelity?" and the Sermon on the Mount ran through my mind faster than well, you-no-what through a goose.
I find the circumstances, the questions, and the answers terribly revealing about the true nature of sin. In the first place, a question like that, much like all the questions on dietary laws, and keeping the Sabbath and so on make sense only if we view sin as behavioral instead of conditional. Sin is not what we do, it is the state that we are in. What we do is indicative of that state, but the state does not result from what we do.
Secondly, the story reveals what an incredibly sorry state it is we are in:
I'm fairly certain most of my readers are at this point congratulating themselves for not being perverted enough to have ever imagined such a thing, which, or course, instantly puts us in the same category of depraved sinner as our virtually transgenderd friends, although our path onto that pile is via pride instead of sexual sin.
Which points out another important point about sin, we are all in that sorry state together.
That's why the gospel is not a behavioral message but a transformative one. We seek not to act differently, but to BE different.
When I read the MSNBC peice, my instant reaction was "What are they, kidding? Of course its infidelity." But that to is in some sense a smug and prideful reaction. I have never been tempted by such as the story describes, but I have most definitely been sorely tempted by many other things, and I have been overcome by that temptation many times. So have you.
Best we all keep that in mind when we read about such things.
Related Tags: sin, commonality, gospel, depravity
I find the circumstances, the questions, and the answers terribly revealing about the true nature of sin. In the first place, a question like that, much like all the questions on dietary laws, and keeping the Sabbath and so on make sense only if we view sin as behavioral instead of conditional. Sin is not what we do, it is the state that we are in. What we do is indicative of that state, but the state does not result from what we do.
Secondly, the story reveals what an incredibly sorry state it is we are in:
That didn’t seem to matter to Sam. He fell pretty hard for his avatar sweetie. They bonded intellectually, emotionally, and yes, thanks to Second Life animations, even physically.Transgendered, virtual, homosexual adultery - we have to be pretty far gone to even imagine such a thing, let alone carry it out.
Here’s where it gets complicated. Unlike his avatar, which is female, in real life, Sam is a man. A married man. And the person behind the blonde, curvaceous Kat? Married. And, quite possibly, a man, too.
I'm fairly certain most of my readers are at this point congratulating themselves for not being perverted enough to have ever imagined such a thing, which, or course, instantly puts us in the same category of depraved sinner as our virtually transgenderd friends, although our path onto that pile is via pride instead of sexual sin.
Which points out another important point about sin, we are all in that sorry state together.
That's why the gospel is not a behavioral message but a transformative one. We seek not to act differently, but to BE different.
When I read the MSNBC peice, my instant reaction was "What are they, kidding? Of course its infidelity." But that to is in some sense a smug and prideful reaction. I have never been tempted by such as the story describes, but I have most definitely been sorely tempted by many other things, and I have been overcome by that temptation many times. So have you.
Best we all keep that in mind when we read about such things.
Related Tags: sin, commonality, gospel, depravity
