We are still looking at the "acts of the sinful nature."
6. Discord: I think this means "does not play well with others," the opposite of being in accord. Discord has to do with whether someone is in agreement or at least has pleasant attitude toward the people they interact with. Of course a person can be in discord with mean people. In that case they would be in the right, unless they are acting just like them. Causing discord can also refer to causing confusion.
7. Jealousy: admittedly an often unhealthy emotion. Wanting what you don't or can't have can lead to harmful behaviors, such as theft, murder, and destruction of other's property. It can lead to your own psychological harm as well, undermining your self esteem, if you place importance on the number, quality, or size of your posessions compared to others. Being possessive of people in your life is another form of jealousy that can do harm to relationships. It's wierd that the bible spends a lot of time saying god is a jealous god. Does god have a sinful nature?
8.Dissensions and factions: these seem to be very similar to causing discord, but in groups or cliques. There are many legitimate reasons to dissent, as we are seeing in the current political climate.
9. Envy: See jealousy.
10. Drunkenness: Surely we all know drunkenness has the potential to do great harm, to one's self and others. Personally, I prize my brain cells too highly to risk destroying any of them. I'm also not fond of feeling nauseated or not in control of my faculties. I don't understand why others might enjoy getting drunk. I missed that part of the "sin nature." However, as long as a person takes personal responsibility for their actions and precautions against harming others, what can anyone say, except to express their own opinion. Notice this passage does not say don't drink at all.
11. Orgies: this is a subject I know very little about and am not particularly interested in. I'm certainly not going to google it. I would think any thing that can be said has already been mentioned in the last post under Sexual immorality.
I think it's strange that Paul does not mention things like lying, theft, murder, rape, abuse, libel, slander, genocide, slavery, and other crimes against humanity. Maybe he thinks his list covers all the important things in a round about way. He does say that the people who live according to this "sinful nature" will not inherit the kingdom of god. What exactly is the kingdom of god?
The idea of the sinful nature is predicated on the existance of a god who makes rules and has wishes about how things should be done. Ignoring those wishes means getting out of god's grace. Since I don't believe in any gods, I also don't believe in sinning against them. But I think we can sin against our fellow humans, by being hurtful or destructive in a large number of ways. I think we can sin against our selves in a way by self harm or unhealthy behaviors. To some extent that is our own business, untill it affects the well being of others, like second hand cigarette smoke. However, consequences arise naturally, and depend on the circumstances. Life just happens and people behave in ways that people have behaved for millenia. Some people have better luck, some people have better genes, some people have better self control, some people learn how to change the behaviors they want to change.
I'm not sure I covered this topic adequately but we will move on to the "fruit of the spirit" tomorrow.
No comments:
Post a Comment