Haughty eyes, a proud heart, and evil actions are all sin. (Proverbs 21:4)The Bible says it is the attitude that will condemn you, not just the action.
In other words, you haven’t actually done a bad thing. But you sat around thinking about it. You are just as guilty. You haven’t taken things from poor people to enrich yourself, but you look at them as if you were better than they. So the guilt is there as much as if you actually stole from them.
What does that mean? Does it mean thoughtcrime – a word coined by George Orwell in the book 1984 – has been invented by God? We may not do something but because we thought of it, we are guilty and going to hell?
No. What it means is that you can keep the body clean but unless you also keep the mind clean, it does no good. It also means that legalism will not save you. Simply by not doing something you are not made holy. Your holiness comes from your attitude, from your heart, from the very way you conduct yourself.
God is not looking for ways and reasons to send us to hell. If he had been, we all would have gone long ago. If he had been, it would have been a waste of time to send Jesus to die for us to bring us back to him.
It was Jesus himself who said he did not come to condemn, but to save. It was he who said he had come to bring people back to the Father.
If it were true that he was looking for reasons to send us to hell, why bother with the bringing back part? Just forget it, look around for those who had managed to not actually do anything and save them.
That is what we do with politicians. We are looking for those who have never done anything wrong (and maybe never really done anything period). Maybe they are greedy, or grasping, or lustful, but they have never actually been caught in a sin so they are fine.
God looks at the heart, not at the actions. He knows the actions are going to be bad because we have all sinned. We start off sinning. We’re lost from the beginning. So what is the point of trying to pretend we are anything we aren’t?
It is the insides, not the outsides that will save a person. I would rather have a child who makes a lot of mistakes but whose heart is good than a perfect child with no real feeling for me either way.
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