What if the people you knew from church, not acquaintances but the people you really know, were told to rank you on a scale of 1 to 10 and scored you on how closely your walk with Christ matched your talk?
Feeling pretty confident you'd score a solid 8 ... or maybe even a 9?
What about a "perfect" 10? Anybody feeling they'd measure up to a two-digit tally? After all, we're talking about the score you'd receive from the folks who know you best ... the people who know you from church.
How would you score?
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Now let's hold our breath, and go a little deeper.
Let's say that before your "church friends" write down your score, they're also allowed complete access to your internet account, including all your emails, downloads, online purchases and web browsing history.
Uh oh.
Let's add full access to your checkbook, your credit card receipts, your telephone calls, your work conversations and your pay-per-view and NetFlix movie history too ... just to make sure your "church friends" have all the relevant information before finalizing your score.
Feel like adding some live videos from your dating life and your kitchen and your living room, too? How's that sound?
Still feeling confident about your score ... or does the scoring system suddenly start sounding flawed, blatantly unfair and intrusive on your private life?
After all, nobody's perfect ... right? But is that an explanation for the things we've been doing, or is that an excuse to keep on doing?
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We act like the things we do aren't sins when they're done in private, "on our own time" or when "no one's looking." When we believe There's a difference or No one's being hurt and that No one will ever know.
After all, aren't some things in our lives clearly stamped Nobody's Business?
But God knows ... and we should already know that we can't hide a thing from him. Nothing.
Not even with the lights out and all the doors closed.
So who do we think we're fooling if we act one way "at church" but live differently when we think no one's around to hold us accountable?
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Funny how we think we can sin in private and get away with fooling our friends. And that sometimes God's looking the other way, so maybe we can fool him, too.
There's the rub: somehow our private sins make us feel smarter ... and more important and powerful ... than the Almighty.
Do not be deceived: God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows. The one who sows to please his sinful nature, from that nature will reap destruction; the one who sows to please the Spirit, from the Spirit will reap eternal life.
- Galatians 6:7-8
In the same way, count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus.
- Romans 6:11
Blessed is the man
whose sin the LORD does not count against him
and in whose spirit is no deceit.
whose sin the LORD does not count against him
and in whose spirit is no deceit.
- Psalm 32:2
