Thursday, May 18, 2017

Thoughts On Victimless Crimes

I have many thoughts this morning and many are hard to communicate in a clear way. A dominant concept is the idea of a 'victimless crime'.

There is great debate as to whether or not such a thing even exists but I find it interesting that God mandated the Sabbath for the nation of Israel and then instructed that there be punishment if the Sabbath was broken.

We aren't under the law. The law isn't for individual believers it was given to a nation and it was for that nation.

"For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace. What then? Are we to sin because we are not under law but under grace? By no means! Do you not know that if you present yourselves to anyone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin, which leads to death, or of obedience, which leads to righteousness?" - Romans 6:14-16 ESV

You could say that no one was hurt by not keeping the Sabbath or you could saw that the individual wasn't hurt but the fabric of society was hurt. You could even say people hurt themselves by not resting as mandated by God but we are not under law... even this law...

"But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin. If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us." - 1 John 1:7-10 ESV

Perhaps these thoughts would just provoke us. I want to walk in the light today and that means coming under grace. That isn't 'not hurting anyone' and it also isn't, 'just taking care of myself'. It is having an open communication with God.

"...for whatsoever is not of faith is sin." - Romans 14:23b KJV

Faithlessness seems like a victimless crime but is it?

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