Lesser Discussed Sins Series - 01 - Introduction

Recently, an article was passed around social media that discussed sins that Christians readily “accept”.  There were a few activities identified as sin within the article that were unsustainable from the Scriptures, but the overall article brought to mind the fact that there are some transgressions that Christians spend less time talking about than others.  Does less time spent on this sin or that sin necessarily mean that Christians “accept” them? Why do we spend less time on some sins than we do on others? Perhaps the answer is that Christians tend to discuss what is most applicable to the culture and time in which they reside.  Does this mean that the lesser discussed sins are not present? Or does it mean that the “mainstream” sins tend to take up more of our efforts? For instance, a brief review of social media and major news outlets will establish that homosexuality, transgenderism, and abortion demand a significant amount of a Christian’s time and effort to address.  These sins need to be addressed because they are so prevalent in our own society.  When a Christian addresses any given sin, especially those considered to be “hot button” issues, the following argument is frequently used: “But you didn’t address sins x, y, and z!” Must a Christian address every single sin every time they deal with a specific sin? If the Christian does not address every sin, does that mean that they accept the sins not mentioned? What does the Bible teach us on this concept?

In Matthew 19:16-22, Jesus answered a question addressed to Him by a young man, but how long did He dwell on the sins that were not pertinent to that specific individual? For instance, Jesus condemns adultery as sin, but was that young man involved in adultery? The context indicates that he was not adulterous.  What good would it have done for Jesus to dwell on that specific sin in that circumstance? Instead, Jesus made a specific application to the individual He was instructing; knowing that the young man placed great store in his physical possessions, Jesus addressed materialism.  Did Jesus accept adultery because He chose not to dwell on it in this circumstance?

Likewise, Christians today tend to deal with sins that are currently prevalent.  Should we be pointed in addressing the sins that are specific to an individual’s life? Jesus certainly was in our example.  If there is a particular sin that currently impacts society as a whole, should we spend time addressing it? In the Old Testament, there are numerous prophets, judges, rulers, and kings of Israel that dealt with sins that impacted the whole nation.  For example, idolatry frequently plagued the people of God; how many prophets avidly fought against idolatry? How many judges and rulers of Israel? Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Moses, Joshua, Elijah, and many other devout men and women of God openly opposed idolatry.  Should we not do the same as Christians?

While Jesus did not dwell on the sin of adultery in our example from Matthew 19, that does not mean that He did not teach on it in more depth under more applicable circumstances.  In fact, in the earlier portions of Matthew 19, Jesus was asked about marriage and divorce and He spent time answering the question.  Some sins may be more prevalent within our society and considered “high profile” in some aspects, but Christians do need to be careful to spend time identifying and addressing sins that might not be so mainstream.  There are many tender hearts in both the world and the church that may be involved in sin without realizing it.  A story was once told about a young couple that was involved in fornication without knowing that they were.  Why did they not realize it? They had been preached to and taught that “fornication” is a sin, so how could they not know it? They knew that “fornication” is a sin, but they had no idea what “fornication” meant! Part of our duty as Christians is to understand what sin is, have the appropriate reaction to sin, and to help one another understand sin so that it might be corrected. 

Within the Scriptures, there are numerous passages that include a somewhat limited list of “what not to do”, but a comprehensive list of sins does not exist.  Examining the Scriptures shows that even the inspired writers did not address every single sin every time they wrote instructions for the first-century Christians.  Often, we turn and use passages that deal with prevalent sins such as homosexuality, but do not take enough time to go into depth the remaining sins in the list.  Does this mean that we accept these other sins? Or does it mean that we need to spend more time in study? Included in such lists are the following sins: adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lewdness, idolatry, sorcery, hatred, contentions, jealousies, outbursts of wrath, selfish ambitions, dissensions, heresies, envies, murder, drunkenness, revelries, homosexuality, sodomy, thieves, covetousness, extortion, filthiness, whoever loves and practices a lie, and “the like” (Galatians 5:19-21, 1 Corinthians 6:9-10, Ephesians 5:3-6, and Revelation 22:12-16).  For a conscientious Christian, there is much guidance to be found within these passages and those similar to them. 

How should a Christian view sin? We tend to have a natural revulsion to some sins in the aforementioned list, but should there be a difference? Peter, in his discussion of Christians returning to the world, stated that sin is like a dog that returns to his own vomit and a washed sow returning to wallow in the mire (2 Peter 2:18-22).  Does that disgust you? Is it revolting to picture a dog eating its own vomit? Is mire merely mud? Jude wrote that Christians need to save others “with fear, pulling them out of the fire, hating even the garment defiled by the flesh” (Jude 23).  There needs to be revulsion to all sin, not just one or two sins.  In Romans 8:6-8, the Apostle Paul wrote that to “be carnally minded is death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace.  Because the carnal mind is enmity against God; for it is not subject to the law of God, nor indeed can be.  So then, those who are in the flesh cannot please God.”  Christians must have the correct perspective of sin; it is not cute, it is not acceptable, and it needs to be addressed.  While we do not accept sin simply because we do not often address them by name, we do need to be careful not to allow some sins to slip through the cracks unnoticed. 

The purpose of this article has been to lay the foundation for the future study of some “lesser discussed” sins and how those sins impact our lives.  While we will not go through and discuss every single sin listed even in this article, we will select a few and try to do an in-depth study of those sins and possible applications we can make.  Often, non-believers will state that if an activity is not specifically mentioned in the Bible that it must not be a sin; hopefully we will be able to address such argumentation and show that we are given enough information to be able to accurately determine right from wrong even if a sin is not specifically mentioned.