Forgotten Sins

2 Kings 15

In this chapter of the bible, there is an account of the reign of some of the kings of both Israel and Judah. I noticed that in the succession of the kings of Israel that were mentioned, all of them were noted as doing “evil in the eyes of the Lord.” Most of them were murdered by their successors, who were sometimes the son’s of the current ruler. It gives the impression that those things happened because of the evil in their hearts because the account of Judah mentioned kings that did “right in the eyes of the Lord” and had peaceful reigns and deaths. It makes me think of how much God hates evil and how, sometimes, that evil can cause disastrous effects. So, I thought, what is evil? Sure, we know the sins that everyone knows and says they stay away from – lying, stealing, cheating, murder etc. But there are sins that we fall into that we may not have considered a sin or even saw as a big deal at all. I want to look at a few of those.

Idolatry

One of the sins that caught my attention as I studied is Idolatry. The bible speaks against Idolatry in several different places. One location that I was drawn to is in Hosea.

Hosea 11: 1-7

11 “When Israel was a child, I loved him, and out of Egypt I called my son. 2 But the more they were called, the more they went away from me.[a] They sacrificed to the Baals and they burned incense to images. 3 It was I who taught Ephraim to walk, taking them by the arms;
but they did not realize it was I who healed them. 4 I led them with cords of human kindness, with ties of love. To them I was like one who lifts a little child to the cheek, and I bent down to feed them.

5 “Will they not return to Egypt and will not Assyria rule over them because they refuse to repent? 6 A sword will flash in their cities; it will devour their false prophets and put an end to their plans. 7 My people are determined to turn from me. Even though they call me God Most High, I will by no means exalt them.

Hosea 13:1-3

When Ephraim spoke, people trembled; he was exalted in Israel. But he became guilty of Baal worship and died. 2 Now they sin more and more; they make idols for themselves from their silver,
cleverly fashioned images, all of them the work of craftsmen. It is said of these people, “They offer human sacrifices! They kiss[a] calf-idols!”
3 Therefore they will be like the morning mist, like the early dew that disappears, like chaff swirling from a threshing floor, like smoke escaping through a window.

In both of these passages, God’s disdain for Idol worship is apparent. He is angry with Israel because of their practices, enough to talk about punishing them severely. When I first read this, I thought “well, I don’t worship Idols.” But, Idols can be more than we think they are. We may not even know that we’ve let an Idol into our lives that takes the place of God or takes our attention off of him.

Job 31:24-28

24 “If I have put my trust in gold or said to pure gold, ‘You are my security,’ 25 if I have rejoiced over my great wealth, the fortune my hands had gained, 26 if I have regarded the sun in its radiance or the moon moving in splendor, so that my heart was secretly enticed and my hand offered them a kiss of homage, 28 then these also would be sins to be judged, for I would have been unfaithful to God on high.

This passage shows me that money or anything else can be an Idol. Anything that entices our hand and causes us to “offer them a kiss of homage,” will become like an idol to us and would be sins that we can be judged for.

Colossians 3: 5-6

5 Put to death, therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly nature: sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires and greed, which is idolatry. 6 Because of these, the wrath of God is coming.[b] 

In the same line of thinking, this passage shows that greed can be a form of idolatry. It can take the place of God in our hearts and make us put money before righteousness. It goes further to say that because of the sins mentioned, including greed/idolatry, the wrath of God is coming on the day of judgment.

2 Timothy 3: 1-5

 But mark this: There will be terrible times in the last days. 2 People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, 3 without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of the good, 4 treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God— 5 having a form of godliness but denying its power. Have nothing to do with such people.

In this passage, it shows that, in the end of days, people will be lovers of themselves and money. It doesn’t directly say that this is a form of idolatry, but in it, there is a picture painted of people loving things other than God. The word “love” is not used lightly in the bible. There are two types of love derived from two different greek words that are used in the scriptures. This particular love is “philautos,” meaning “self-love,” derived from the greek word “phileo.” From a word study, I found that “Phileo is a love called out of one in response to a feeling of pleasure or delight which one experiences from an apprehension of qualities in another that furnish such pleasure or delight.” Further, “In Scripture phileo is used to describe the love of God the Father and the Son, of Jesus and Peter, and of Jonathan and David.” That’s quite a statement. To compare the love of oneself to that of Jesus and Peter or even Jonathan and David, speaks volumes of how much people will care about themselves in the coming times. This same word was used by Peter when Jesus asked him if he had love for him, clearly showing that the love of self and money could be a form of idolatry.

Running from his word

Another sin that is not typically spoken of is the sin of running from the commands of God. In the bible, we learn that those that have ran from or ignored that orders of the Lord have not prevented or dissuaded his actions or judgment, but ended up fulfilling the given prophecy or warning against sin and evil.

Jeremiah 36-39

In these chapters, God tells Jeremiah to write on a scroll his prophecy to Israel. Later in the chapter, the king burned the scroll, ignoring God’s rebuke. God gave another chance and had Jeremiah write the scroll once more. Jeremiah was jailed and imprisoned and repeatedly asked by different people to repeat the prophecy and found it unchanging. The continued ignorance of his word resulted in the prophecy coming true and the city being taken by the Babylonians.

Jonah 1 – 2

Jonah literally ran from God when he told Jonah to go and preach against Nineveh. His actions resulted in him going through a great storm that almost claimed his life and the lives of his companions. When he convinced them to throw him overboard, calming the storm, Jonah was swallowed by a “great fish” and spent time in his stomach for three days. After he cried out to God for forgiveness, the fish spit him out on land and he did as he was told; preach to Nineveh. God’s will was carried out regardless of how Jonah felt about it.

Deuteronomy 11: 26-28

26 See, I am setting before you today a blessing and a curse— 27 the blessing if you obey the commands of the Lord your God that I am giving you today; 28 the curse if you disobey the commands of the Lord your God and turn from the way that I command you today by following other gods, which you have not known. 

God says here that he would bless them for following his commands and expressly says that he would curse them if they did not follow his word. This idea is mentioned several times in the scriptures and every time, there was the idea of following God and punishment if not. God told the Israelites many times that they would follow him and return to his fold or they would be punished and given over to destruction.

Judging others

Another sin that can be looked over by Christians frequently is the tendency to judge others by some barometer that we’ve created derived by our knowledge of the scriptures. In the New Testament, Jesus and the Apostles speak against judging others for a few reasons. One reason is that the person’s faith may be weak or they could have beliefs that are neither good or bad that we should respect even if we think they’re silly or go against our own opinions.

Romans 14: 1-4

14 Accept the one whose faith is weak, without quarreling over disputable matters. 2 One person’s faith allows them to eat anything, but another, whose faith is weak, eats only vegetables. 3 The one who eats everything must not treat with contempt the one who does not, and the one who does not eat everything must not judge the one who does, for God has accepted them. 4 Who are you to judge someone else’s servant? To their own master, servants stand or fall. And they will stand, for the Lord is able to make them stand.

Who exactly are we to think that we should judge someone in this manner? In the scripture, it says “someone else’s servant,” saying that we all will stand before the Lord for his judgment and his alone. Verse three says we should not treat others with “contempt” specifically when they do or do not eat meat if we believe that it should or should not be done. This verse and the following verses imply that it applies to more than just eating meat, but could apply to other reasons we may judge others. Also, if we do judge, we can be held accountable to our own measure of judgment.

Matthew 7: 1-5

7 “Do not judge, or you too will be judged. 2 For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.

3 “Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye? 4 How can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when all the time there is a plank in your own eye? 5 You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye.

We see here that we can be judged in the same way that we judge others. The passage speaks of hypocrisy, saying basically that we have things wrong with us and decide to judge others about the same or even different things, comparing it to a speck of sawdust in another’s eye while we have a plank in our own eye. The comparison seems ridiculous. A speck of sawdust in comparison to an entire plank makes me chuckle a bit, but the action of judging in that manner is just as ludicrous. There is only one judge, shown by this passage.

James 4:11-12

11 Brothers and sisters, do not slander one another. Anyone who speaks against a brother or sister[a] or judges them speaks against the law and judges it. When you judge the law, you are not keeping it, but sitting in judgment on it. 12 There is only one Lawgiver and Judge, the one who is able to save and destroy. But you—who are you to judge your neighbor?

There is only one judge and “lawgiver” that has the ability to save and destroy and we should leave that to him. As followers of Christ we need to see his example and do as he does. When Jesus was confronted about the adulterous woman, he stopped the stoning and told them to consider that they are also in sin saying he who is without sin cast the first stone. He did this because he did not come to condemn.

John 3:17

17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.

Jesus did not come to condemn the world but to save it. He did not come to sit and judge but rather to teach and educate. In the great commission, we are told to do the same. Go and teach just like Jesus did and like the apostles continued to do. One of the reasons Christians may judge is that they look down on sinners or people of lower status.

Romans 12:16

16 Live in harmony with one another. Do not be proud, but be willing to associate with people of low position.[a] Do not be conceited.

We are told to not be consumed by conceit and we should associate with people of “low position.” Jesus himself ate with sinners of all sort. He did not turn away people because of what they were doing, but rather he was there to help them come to God and show them a shining example of how we should be as servants of God.

These sins are forgotten about and overlooked as we focus on the big sins and preach and preach on the things that are obvious sins. We need to keep in mind that we need to watch our own actions and try to curb our own desires in order to save others and ourselves the same.