Sin...As Black as Can Be! Part 2

³⁷ While Jesus was speaking, a Pharisee asked him to dine with him, so he went in and reclined at table. ³⁸ The Pharisee was astonished to see that he did not first wash before dinner. ³⁹ And the Lord said to him, “Now you Pharisees cleanse the outside of the cup and of the dish, but inside you are full of greed and wickedness. ⁴⁰ You fools! Did not he who made the outside make the inside also? ⁴¹ But give as alms those things that are within, and behold, everything is clean for you.

⁴² “But woe to you Pharisees! For you tithe mint and rue and every herb, and neglect justice and the love of God. These you ought to have done, without neglecting the others. ⁴³ Woe to you Pharisees! For you love the best seat in the synagogues and greetings in the marketplaces. ⁴⁴ Woe to you! For you are like unmarked graves, and people walk over them without knowing it.”

 Luke 11:37-44. (English Standard Version)

Ten years ago, I was married to my first husband. When I came across a person who was divorced, I kept away from them, so as not to become entangled with the sin that was in their lives...or so I thought. I had no idea what a divorce was all about, except to think that I had no inclination, as a Christian, to reach out to them...because I would be exposed to sin...and I, as a Christian, was taught to flee from sin, and I was not supposed to have anything to do with their sin...and so my divorced friend never heard from me again. SHAME ON ME!!

Yet, this is what I did not understand at the time. I needed to know that my heart that I had given to Christ was to indeed be used to heal the broken-hearted...because Christ lived in my heart. I needed to understand the audacity of the sin of the spouse, so that I could pull up the righteous spouse and hold them and embrace them...because they faced such wretchedness and evil from their spouse. And then, the only way that I saw all of that was through my own broken heart when my ex divorced me, and told me that he had never loved me...from our wedding day. And he was a pastor...of three churches. My life was devastated! I needed to be embraced by the Church...and yes, some did just that...they embraced me and loved me like Jesus loves us...but I also experienced some others, who were Christians, who turned their backs on me.

CHURCH! There are those sins that are very evident in the lives of others - especially those who are evil, BUT then there is the sin of total disobedience against God's Word when we are commissioned to act upon the very ministry of Christ, when He said,

 "“The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,
    because he has anointed me
    to proclaim good news to the poor.  

He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives
    and recovering of sight to the blind,
    to set at liberty those who are oppressed,
¹⁹ to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor.” Luke 4:18-19

And when we turn our backs on those who are hurting because of the sins of their spouse, THEN OUR SIN IS AS BLACK AS CAN BE! Our sin of omission parallels with the very sin of the spouse that deals treacherously against their own spouse. 

The sin of betrayal 

(did you reject a person because they were divorced?)

  

The sin of abandonment 

(did you leave them to fend for themselves?)  

The sin of emotional abuse 

(did you leave them splattered in their chair because you refused to listen to their pain?) is the same sin that Jesus hates in divorce...the sins of the church that are as black as can be. 

Will you be the outstretched Arms of Christ, or remain in the tombs of the pharisees?