1 John 1:8 — If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.

Three sentences from today’s devotion in Pauses of Lent stood out to me:
1. Sin is a three-letter word that we do not like to use today.
2. Sin, biblically understood, is rebellion against God.
3. Lent provides a wonderful opportunity to let the unselfish and other-centered kind of love that took Jesus to the cross flow more freely throughout our lives.

All three of those things are true. One of them is easier to swallow (3) than the others (1 and 2).

I cringe when I hear the word sin. In my background, sin holds shame and guilt that one need not feel when in the presence of Jesus because In Christ, no one is condemned (John 3:8). Sin is an ugly word, which is fair because it’s an ugly thing. But it’s been thrown around by mainstream western Christians as the reason for hatred (also a sin), exclusion (also a sin), and lynching (also a sin).

So I think I cringe when I hear the word sin, not because I think of my own, but because I think of how it’s been weaponized against people who don’t even know God. And though the acknowledgement of sin is an essential component of a thriving relationship with Christ, calling it out in others who don’t know God is not only unnecessarily mean, but it’s antithetical to who God is. He draws us near to him in his love. He draws us into relationship with him as a loving father. He doesn’t sit on his throne and yell at me. He doesn’t stomp around waving his righteous flag while telling me to get right with him or else. He just doesn’t do that. Mainstream western Christianity has done that. But God doesn’t do that.

The root of evil is sin. But the root of life is love. The root of God’s creation of you and me and every single soul on planet earth is love.

May we be the God-loving and God-fearing folks who draw people to relationship with him
by showing compassion, integrity, kindness, and mercy.

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