Several years ago I was impressed and challenged by something I heard Rick Warren say on his Church Growth Seminar CD I was listening to. He said, "The longer you are a Christian, the fewer non-Christians you will know." That is such a true statement for most of us. As we bond closer together and deepen our family relationships as a church, the less we spend time with non-Christians we can witness to. This is especially true for those of us in full time ministry. I'm not out in the community meeting new people, participating in group activities with non-Christians, because all my time is focused on encouraging and equipping my brethren. I have thought a lot about this and I'm still trying to not only find the time to do "outside of church" stuff, but stuff that it available to do!
I share that principle of disconnecting with outsiders as a downside of spiritual togetherness because it's similar to a statement I made Sunday evening in our special Summer class on Social Issues. I said, "The longer you are a Christian the more lightly you will tend to think of your sins." By "lightly" I mean less serious, less terrible, and less unacceptable. We know better than to think that some sins are worse than others, but the reality is that we are the product of our culture that classifies sins as socially acceptable and socially unacceptable. Our sins are Christian sins! They don't hurt anybody and we still look better than anyone who does the really "bad stuff!" Greed isn't as bad as murder! Pride isn't as bad as adultery! Materialism isn't as bad as rape, robbery, and racism!
Our view of our sin is a reflection of how precious we view the blood of Jesus.
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