How good is good enough?
Episode 18 -We know that sin is not good for our track record: it separates us from God. Everyone knows that anger, envy, jealousy or malice are wrong. We won't even talk about the "bad" sins--murder, thief, adultery, etc. But what about the "good" sins? Another slice of cake when I'm already full. Another binge of my favorite shows when I have pressing deadlines. Another glass of wine. Another approximation in the office finances. A half-truth on my resume. A word well placed to make myself look good at the expense of someone else. Choosing to gratify my desires--right now, even if it means more credit. Being so grateful I'm not as bad as them--whoever them are.
We all do it.
The problem with sin, is that it's just so tempting! How bad can a little white lie be, really? In the great scheme of things, how wrong is it to smudge truth just a tad, if it helps the greater cause? And anyway, compared to the worst offenders, we are pretty good people. So God should just let us in to heaven. After all, we're trying to be good people. Doesn't that count?
Hum.
Stephanie recently had a conversation with a dear friend who believes just that. What would you answer? How do you reconcile God's justice with His love, in the face of temptation? Today we are looking at what it means to smudge the lines a little. In the next episode, we will look at how Jesus handled temptation when it came knocking.
We are in Matthew 4 today, and before we tackle the temptation of Jesus next week, we are taking a look at what temptation is, and what God has to say about it.
Shownotes:
This was not the most fun of episodes! Stay tuned for next week--the second half! Sometimes it's difficult to hear hard truth. Feel free to reach out to Stephanie to ask your questions or make your comments! This episode is part of Season 1 of Gospel Spice, so please take the other episodes as context to understand this one! If this is your first episode of Gospel Spice, we warmly invite you to check out some other ones!
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