What is the Sin "Du Jour"?

Have you ever noticed that certain sins seem to be thought of as more reprehensible than others?

I sometimes find that somewhat odd, because the Bible seems to tell us, generally speaking, that sin is sin. The Bible says that if a person breaks any part of the Law, that person is a Lawbreaker.

Now, before I go on, I must say that I am in no way trying to defend sin. Sin is serious business. It's sin that causes people to spend eternity in Hell. It's sin that caused Jesus Christ to die on the cross for us. If something is serious enough for the Son of God to give His life because of it, it should not be taken lightly.

Now, the Bible does also seem to indicate that some sins might be more serious than other sins. John 19:11 records Jesus saying to Pilate, "...[T]he one who handed me over to you is guilty of a greater sin." (New International Version, emphasis added).

But just what are the "greater sins" today? I find it interesting that society seems to rank sins. Among the sins that society currently (at least in the U.S.) seems to rank among the worst are pedophelia, child pornography, and drunk driving.

Again, I am in no way defending these things. I reiterate that sin is serious, and it must be dealt with seriously. At the same time, are these things simply among the most serious of the sins du jour? (Just a note--du jour is French for "of the day", as in a restaurant offering a "Soup du jour"). It seems to me that society as a whole--and Christianity--has gone through considering various sins as worse than others.

It wasn't all that long ago that adultery and divorce were considered among the most serious sins. Then it was abortion. Then it was committing homosexual acts. Granted, these were probably not thought of as bad by overall society in general as they were in the church, but the influence of the church on society has been waning over the past several decades. It seems as though now society often influences the church as much if not more than the church influences society--even in matters of considering things good and evil.

But let's be honest. For the most part, isn't sin sin? I believe for instance, that pedophelia is abhorrent. But so is murder. So is rape. So is adultery. So is idolatry. All of these are sin, and they are among the things that caused Jesus to have to die on the cross in order for us to have the hope of forgiveness and eternal life.

And I find it interesting that in the eyes of society in general, if I were to rank the sins I've mentioned thus far in this writing from worst to not as bad, the list would probably look something like this:

1. Pedophelia
2. Child Pornography
3. Murder
4. Drunk Driving
5. Rape
6. Abortion
7. Homosexual Acts
8. Adultery
9. Divorce
10. Idolatry

Now, there may be some people who would disagree with me as to that list, and admittedly, most people would probably change the order of some of the things on that list. But in general, I think it gets the idea across.

Look at that list again. It seems interesting to me that numbers 6-10 would be considered to be by many people not even sin, even though the Bible specifically calls them sin. And of the top 5, the Bible specifically mentions only 2 of them as sin.

I again must reiterate, I believe that all of those 10 things are sinful. But what I am getting at is that our society seems to have turned things upside down--especially with number 10, idolatry.

What if the Church really took seriously the Biblical prohibition against idolatry? When the Bible says that we should have no other gods before the One, True God, do we really believe it?

When Jesus said in Matthew 22:34-40 that the greatest commandment is that a person should love God with all his/her heart, soul, mind and strength, and that the second greatest commandment is to love other people as we love ourselves, He said that those two things sum up the Law and the Prophets.

Could it be that the way to love God with everything we've got is first of all to surrender ourselves to His will and let Jesus Christ be the Lord or boss of our lives, thereby dealing with the sin of idolatry? Couldn't it be that once we love God by surrendering to Him and letting Jesus be our Savior or boss, He will help us to better love other people? Couldn't it be that through loving God and through better loving other people, we will be empowered to be better witnesses for Him? And couldn't it be that through being better witnesses for Him, more people will come to Him and we would therefore be dealing more effectively than we are now with the other 9 items on the above list?

Perhaps it's time for people of Christ to re-evaluate priorities and be salt and light to a dying world by offering it Jesus, instead of mainly wringing their hands and taking strong stands against the sins du jour, whatever they may happen to be at any particular given time. Stand up against sin, yes, but perhaps we need to spend more time focusing on surrendering to the will of and serving the One, True God through Jesus Christ.