My Sin Matters to God

Posted On September 3, 2020

I Have a Confession to Make

I have a confession to make.  Well, more than one, actually, but let’s start with this one.  I have been struggling to be kind.

Sounds a bit lame, doesn’t it?  Who really cares?  I mean it’s not like I’ve murdered someone, or cheated on my husband, or am a compulsive liar, right?  While that may be true, not being kind is still a sin.  My sin matters to God.

As I sit here writing, I feel like I’ve already said enough.  They’re only five little words, but they’re heavy, weighty, almost crushingly so.

My-sin-matters-to-God.  Do you feel the weight of those words?

My Sin Matters to God

I work as a pharmacy technician.  I like the work, my co-workers, and, for most part, working with our patients.   The restrictions that have been put in place regarding the pandemic have made some aspects of my job difficult.  One of the restrictions actually tripled the amount of work we did in a day!  Add to the extra work, impatient, rude, and obnoxious people who expect pharmacies to run like fast-food restaurants, and you get a fairly good idea of what my work-life was like from the middle of March to about the middle of July.

Sounds like fun, huh?  In the midst of that I struggled daily to just leave my house to go to work.  I know that the pharmacy is where God has put me to serve Him in my community.  It’s the place where I interact most with unbelievers.  I just did not want to be there.

You know what?  It is really hard to be patient, kind, and gentle with people who are not!  I just wanted to treat them exactly the same way they were treating me and my co-workers.  I confess, (I said I had more!) sometimes, in my head, I did just that.

So if believers are to be known by their kindness (Ephesians 4:32, Colossians 3:12, Titus 2:5), and sinning in one’s thoughts is just as sinful as acting on those thoughts, then I am guilty of being unkind.

Back into Titus

I have already said that the book of Titus is always relevant.  (You can read more about that here and here.)  When I wrote that, I did not expect to be able to apply Titus’s teachings to the Covid-19 Pandemic of 2020!  However, God is God, and I am not, so why am I even surprised!

In the book of Titus the word “good” is used at least eight times.  (I say “at least” because some versions translate the word “kind” as good.)  The author says that elders (or pastors) are to love what is good (vs 1:8); that older women are to teach younger women what is good and to be kind (vs 2:3,5); Titus is to be an example by doing what is good (vs 2:7); and God’s people are to be eager to do, and devoted to doing, what is good (vs 2:14, 3:14).  Get the idea that this might be important?

What is Good?

Now that we’ve looked at what Titus says, what does “what is good” mean? Well, the apostle Paul (the one who penned the book of Titus), doesn’t exactly give us a list of good things, but I think we can get a reasonable idea from what he does say.  Let’s take a look.

The first good thing we come across in Titus is in the very first verse!  Paul says that his job as an apostle is to “further the faith of God’s elect and their knowledge of the truth that leads to godliness” (Titus 1:1b New International Version, NIV).  Did you catch that?

The good described here is that God’s people, those born-again believers called the elect, are to grow in their faith and knowledge of the truth (God’s word).  This leads to godliness. 

According to Baker’s Evangelical Dictionary of Biblical Theology, godliness is “the reverent awareness of God’s sovereignty over every aspect of life, and the attendant determination to honor him in all one’s conduct.”

Now, I already said that I was struggling to be kind.  I had a pretty good handle on the fact that I was sinning, but I what I didn’t get was that my lack of kindness was only the symptom of a deeper sin problem.  

The Deeper Sin Problem

Here I was, just living my Christian life, you know? Praying and reading my Bible regularly (more than just on Sundays). I try to be careful about what I feed my brain & soul. I check what I watch, what podcasts I listen to, and what books I read. Goodness, I’m even spending spare time writing a Bible study blog!

Looks like a godly life, doesn’t it?

Inside, though, I was living as if I was in charge of my life. God may be sovereign over all creation, but, to my shame, my heart had declared itself to be independent of Him.

Jesus said, “No one can serve two masters. Either you will hate the one and love the other, or you will be devoted to the one and despise the other.” (Matthew 6:24, NIV). Now, he was specifically speaking about money, in that verse, but in the greater context of Matthew 6:19-34 he was really talking about keeping our eyes focused on the cares of this world rather than on heavenly things. I was serving myself by indulging in self-pity rather than serving Christ.

Grace Is Greater

Titus 2:11-14 NIV says, “For the grace of God has appeared that offers salvation to all people. It teaches us to say ‘No’ to ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright and godly lives in this present age, while we wait for the blessed hope- the appearing of the glory of our great God and Saviour, Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us to redeem us from all wickedness and to purify for himself a people that are his very own eager to do what is good.”

Titus, and those Sunday sermons, showed me that I had taken my eyes off Jesus, and that I had some heart work to do.

Thankfully, he knows our weaknesses, and believers have been promised that, “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.” (1 John 1:9 NIV)

So after confessing my sin, I realized that I needed to work at keeping my heart and mind focused on Christ. Titus 3:5 NIV reminds us that God saved us “not because of the righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy.” Likewise, it is because of his mercy towards impatient, rude, and obnoxious people (like me) that believers are commanded to be peaceable, considerate, and gentle towards everyone (including impatient, rude, and obnoxious people). Just twist that knife a little harder!!!

Thankfulness- the antidote to selfishness

Sinfulness poisons one’s testimony. I’ve mentioned before (you can read that here) that Titus talks about how a believer’s actions makes the gospel attractive to unbelievers. The reverse is also true. Have you ever heard someone say, “If that’s what a Christian is like, then I don’t want to be one!”?

My co-workers, and many of our patients, know that I am a Christian. I truly hope that my lack of kindness didn’t poison my testimony at the pharmacy. I also don’t ever want to be in a state like that again. So how can I avoid that? Enter the coffee mug!

My daughters and I were out shopping for supplies for a camping trip. Specifically, I was looking for some cute enamel-on-steel mugs. (I’m something of a mug freak- travel mugs, ceramic mugs, china mugs, seasonal mugs, mugs with cute sayings- I like them all!) While I was looking I came across a lovely ceramic mug that said “Bee thankful”.

It hit me, then and there, that the only way I was going to avoid being unkind, and keep my eyes on Jesus, was to be thankful for what he has done. The words of Romans 1:21 NIV “although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him,” came to my mind.

I knew God, but I hadn’t been glorifying him, not inwardly. I definitely hadn’t been thankful for what he has given me or done for me. It hurts me just to write this, but how many believers are guilty of this?

Holding that mug my hand, I knew that I never wanted to be in that place again! So, armed with the joy of repentance, good intentions, and a new mug (for remembrance), I am working towards being thankful.

I don’t just want to be thankful, I want my heart to be full of thankfulness. To do that, I am convinced that I need to be continually reminded of who I was before God saved me, and why he saved me.

I have a lot of work to do! At least, with the Holy Spirit working in me (Titus 3:5-6), I don’t have to do it on my own.

Let’s Get Started!

So how about you? Do you need to work on keeping your eyes on Jesus? Are you more concerned about what’s going on around you, than what’s going on in your heart?

Let’s take some time this week to consider the following verses

Philippians 2:1-11; Titus 3:1-7; Hebrews 12:1-15

Related resources

Do You Bear Fruit? Paul Washer

A Peculiar Prayer for Power- D. A. Carson

Spiritual-Mindedness- John Owen