How are Christians to interact with the culture they live in? If you’ve attended church for any length of time, you’ve likely heard that we are to “be in the world, not of it.” But what exactly does this mean? What does “being in the world but not of the world” look like? Well, Jesus makes it clear in His famous Sermon on the Mount.
Jesus was truly the greatest teacher ever. He never made a bad sermon illustration. He never droned on for hours and hours about meaningless information. He never strayed from the truths of the scriptures. He always preached truth in a relevant and mostly understandable way. Jesus taught His followers to love and forgive others, even their enemies, and to treat others how they would like to be treated. He emphasized the importance of faith and repentance, and He revealed that it is impossible to enter the kingdom of God through doing enough good works.
While Jesus was truly a good teacher, some claim that that is all He was. They acknowledge that Jesus really did live in ancient Israel 2,000 years ago, and they may even acknowledge that He was crucified on a cross. He was a great man who taught great things, but He was not God. According to Ligonier Ministries’ 2020 State of Theology survey, 51% of Americans believe this.[1]
Is this true? Was Jesus simply a good teacher?
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Everybody sins. We all make mistakes. You don’t have to teach a toddler to say “no” or to disobey their parents. You don’t have to teach a child to cheat on their tests or be mean to their friends. We have an innate desire to sin, and that innate desire never goes away. Throughout our entire lives, we are tempted and lured by sins. And it is only by God’s grace that we are able to resist these temptations.
But we will never be able to fully escape sin while we are living on this earth. So, as a way to justify our sins or assuage our guilt, we often rank our sins. Sins like murder, rape, and abuse are big, terrible sins that surely deserve to be punished. But sins like gossip, envy, or pride are just “small” sins that can just be swept under the rug. They’re seemingly not that big of a deal, and they’re not really hurting anyone. Therefore, many people, including many who claim to be Christians, believe that these little sins don’t deserve punishment.
In their 2020 State of Theology survey, Ligonier Ministries found that sixty-six percent of American adults disagree with the statement, “Even the smallest sin deserves eternal damnation.”[1] But is this belief – the belief that small sins shouldn’t send someone to hell – backed up by Scripture? Do small sins deserve to be punished?
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“Many paths lead from the foot of the mountain, but at the peak we all gaze at the single bright moon.”[1]
You’ve probably heard something similar to this before. This quote was written by the Buddhist monk Ikkyu, and it basically means that you can reach God and salvation through whatever religion you choose to practice. Our culture today loves and embraces this idea. They preach that you should be able to believe and practice whatever you want to believe and practice and that what’s true for you may not be true for somebody else. In fact, the Ligonier State of Theology Survey found in 2018 that sixty-five percent of American adults agree with the statement that “God accepts the worship of all religions, including Christianity, Judaism, and Islam.”[2] But can this really be true? Does this statement agree with the truth we find in the Word of God?
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