Failing to See the Real Danger

I recently read a report on cell phone radiation that basically claimed that we are worried about the wrong things. It stated that we should be less concerned about radiation from cell phones and more worried about texting while driving.

Essentially the article was suggesting that what is really dangerous about cell phones is something that many people do every single day, but we would rather focus on a more abstract notion, like cell phone radiation, than to focus on our own actions which have the potential to cause ourselves and others harm every day.

We are generally the same way when it comes to our sin issues. We love talking about sins that others struggle with. We tend to place more emphasis on what we are not dealing with. Christians seem to love to act as if the world is falling apart because of what other people are doing. Yet, the sins in our own houses are killing us and our families: gossip, pornography, hatred, lust, jealousy, selfishness.

These aren’t the things we enjoy harping on, though. We would rather discuss how the world is going to Hell in a handbasket because of gay couples on TV, yet we’ll change the channel and watch some foul, sex-filled, f-word laced God-dishonoring thing and feel okay about it. It’s an interesting phenomenon of humanity.

Cell phone radiation may be a real problem. But texting while we drive around town is a much more immediate threat to us and our families. The same is true of our sin.

Yes, certain sins are glorified in our culture. But plenty of other sins are alive and well in our own lives. Maybe that’s why Jesus told us to take care of the log in our own eye before we deal with the speck in another’s. We’ve all got problems.

I’m not suggesting that we shouldn’t speak up for what the Bible says is right. We must. We are called to do so. I’m not even saying we shouldn’t be upset that sinful living is being pushed as the norm everywhere we look. I’m not saying that we shouldn’t be hear t- bro ken that our kids from very young ages will be encouraged to reject the Bible’s teachings on many different fronts by this fallen and faulty society we live in.

But I do wish that we would pray about speaking up with more humility. With more acknowledgement that we are wrong, too. That God in His holiness declares that lying and coveting and stealing and cheating on your wife and being stingy and many other things are sin.

Those other people out there don’t have the market cornered on sin. The truth is that we are doing as much or more to teach our children to sin in our pet ways. We show them how to gossip. We show them how to say that things are wrong and then turn around and do them anyway. We are not even close to perfect.

We are called to do two things in this life: love God and love people. In just doing those two things, most of the sin in our lives would be eradicated forever.

But we can’t hate other sinners and accomplish these callings that God placed in our hearts when He saved us. So, let’s stop worrying so much about others’ sin that we don’t recognize the ways that we are failing. Let’s quit worrying about the radiation and start focusing on the texting behind the wheel.

Let’s start believing that just living our lives in a God-honoring way is enough, without all of the vitriol. And then let’s focus on glorifying God through obedience to His word.

“If I speak in the tongues of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal.”

1 Corinthians 13:1