Capricious. When it comes to properly evaluating sin, that’s you and me. And it's not a good thing, either. The word, capricious, means whimsical. Fickle. Given to unaccountable changes of behavior. And like I say, that's many of us, when it comes to assessing our own sins.
You see, the Bible calls all sin…sin.
But you and me? Most of us have managed to downgrade a whole list of sins into…something less sinful than sin. For example…
Anxiety. We brush it off as a fairly harmless habit. Like biting your fingernails: it'd be nice if we could quit—but no big deal, really.
But anxiety IS a big deal when you're the God of the universe and you've clearly said many times in your instruction book, “Do not worry—about anything.” But again, many of us blow that off.
Same with impatience. “No big deal,” we say. But God sees it all as sin, just the same: being pushy in line…consistently squeezing through yellow lights as they turn red. It's sin. Sin—as in if that's the worst we ever did it really would be enough to keep us away from the presence of a holy God.
But you and I, we're capricious. We've added sin to our sin by choosing to ignore our own infractions, while judging others for more—quote–obvious sins: Cheating, lying, stealing, murder, drunkenness, homosexuality. “Now THESE are REAL sins,” we insist.
No question that some sins come with more of a stigma. More consequence. Maybe more darkness. But again, all sin is sin.
So where do we get off being so hard on others…and so light on ourselves? How dare we be so capricious?
It's time we took the focus off the–quote– “big time” sinners around us.
It's time we felt a godly grief for the sorrow our own sins bring the Savior.
To a watching world filled with sinners in need of that Savior, worrying about the moral mud on our own shoes might just prove winsome.