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Sinning — everyone does it. That is why God sent his Son, Jesus Christ, to atone for our sins and provide a way that we can repent and become free of our sins. So why do some people find it so hard to accept their choices are sins? There are lies now accepted as truth, all designed to prevent people from repenting. While I knew this was the case, I didn’t realize how much it permeated the culture until I read an advice column about dealing with people who sin in a specific way. The first paragraph is as follows, (I’ve edited it, because when you fill in the type of sin, people suddenly lose all objectivity and treat the sins differently… as if one sin was preferable or better than another.)
“A person’s ___ isn’t a “lifestyle choice.” ____ people don’t choose to be ___; they are born that way. They can’t change being ____ any more than you can change being ____.”
You could fill in the blanks with all types of sins (gambling, alcoholism, drug addiction, theft, sexual deviancy, violence, etc…) and the basic premise remains the same. There is a lot to unpack, so I’m going to dissect this.
“A person’s ___ isn’t a lifestyle choice.” Yes, it is. The activities you do are your choice. No one can make you act in any way. Everything you choose to do is your choice. Lifestyle, which is how you chose to live your life, is definitely a choice. To deny this is to deny accountability for yourself. It is also very unhealthy to build your entire identity and social life around how you prefer to sin. It is worshiping your sin, which will eventually only bring pain and sadness. It also sets you up for sin. If the most important thing you identify about yourself is how you sin, you’re going to sin a lot more than you would otherwise. It is much better to build your identity on being a child of God and seeking His love.
“___ people don’t choose to be ____.” Yes, they do. Everyone moderates their behavior and how they comport themselves around others. Research shows that mannerisms associated with certain sinful lifestyles can be turned off and on depending on the crowd the sinner is associating with. Having taught a youth Sunday school classes full of children who had no impulse control, excusing their outbursts, saying, “I have ADHD, I can’t help it.” Once they learned the truth, that they control what they do, they eventually learned impulse control and the disruptions stopped. If children with diagnosed mental illnesses can learn to moderate themselves, anyone can, even sinners.
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