What if We Consider the One Who Is Committing the Sin?
Along with the other ways we have considered society’s changing of sin, for some reason unknown to me, we also have a terrible habit of excusing sin based on who is committing it. Think about all the people out there who are willing to excuse sin if it is committed by televangelists, Presidents or even the Pope himself.
There are congregations where the preacher or the elders are in sin, but no one does anything because of the position those men hold. “Them that sin rebuke before all, that others also may fear” (1 Timothy 5:20). If the apostles or Jesus Christ saw someone in sin, you had better believe that they did not excuse them because of their position. Jesus condemned Peter, one of His closest disciples. He told him, “Get thee behind me, Satan: thou art an offence unto me: for thou savourest not the things that be of God, but those that be of men” (Matthew 16:23). Paul spoke to the Roman governor Felix of “righteousness, temperance, and judgment to come” (Acts 24:25). Paul even wrote in Galatians 2:11-14, “But when Peter was come to Antioch, I withstood him to the face, because he was to be blamed.”
We absolutely cannot allow ourselves to be carried away from the condem- nation of sin by the position of others. I do not care if it is your mother, father or someone you deeply respect, if they are in sin, they need rebuking. James 2:9 says, “But if ye have respect to persons, ye commit sin, and are convinced of the law as transgressors.”
Kyle Campbell
