In my 22 years of life I have come across many people, some of whom are still friends today and some whom are no longer directly in my life. It is funny how we use a term to justify our actions and treatment of others. I have heard a few people in my life say "Don't do that, that's what 'sinners' do" or "you can't hang out with them, they're 'sinners' and will bog you down under their 'sinfulness'", but what does the term sinner mean? "Anyone that goes against God, either directly or indirectly" some say and the Studylight.org lexicon says that a sinner is someone who is "devoted to sin" (way to use the word in the definition, my English teacher would slap you if you were a slap-able person, so watch you back). We must first define what sin is before we can discover the meaning of sinner. A very basic definition is: any act/movement that hinders the Kingdom of God (yes, that does mean, according to this definition, that there are even Christians that are "sinners", but again that is a big topic to discuss in such a small amount of time).
That definition of sin was also used as an exclusive term, that the Jewish people used to exclude anyone who was not a Jew. This definition became the prevalent usage in much of the Old Testament and particularly by the time of Jesus, it had been used by the different sects within Judaism in variant degrees but the main principle was still there: exclusion. When Jews heard that Jesus was chilling with "sinners" they did not think that he was hanging with people that got drunk for instance, although they probably did or at least some of them did; rather they heard that Jesus was hanging with people that were not Jewish even though some possibly held some similar beliefs with those of their fellow Jewish brethren.
Jesus even said that prostitutes would enter the Kingdom of God before the Pharisees would. Jesus dramatically changed their beliefs about being "chosen", or about being "selective". Jesus was leveling the playing field, by hanging out with people that were not Jewish by birth or belief. This attitude toward "outsiders" had apparently continued through the time of Paul, and so he had to re-level the field again, by saying that "all have sinned". Both Jesus and Paul are reframing the term from exclusivism to inclusivism.
It is scary that we have, or rather never left, that ideology. We have used the term to mean anyone who does not "go to church" or "read the bible" or the other synonyms. We have even used it like the other sects of the New Testament Jews saying that one denomination is more "sinful" than a particular denomination. What if we began to think in terms of "we are all sinners" instead of "they are sinners"?
As sinners may we live in that collective view instead of that exclusive view!
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1 comment:
Yeah, I'm a sinner. My recent definition of sin is (although I think I shared it with your crew already) "grasping for control beyond the gifts, grace, and sphere of influence given one by God." We are never meant to be able to control how people feel (that nails me as a codependent) or if we've hired them to work for us because they're capable people, we shouldn't control how they work. Direction? Yes. Doing their job for them? Sin. Yes, micromanagement is a sin. It dehumanizes a person to tell them you trust them to create cultural goods, whether hamburgers or products or processes, but then to override their gifts and creativity. Control is at the heart of all that's called sin. Idolatry is saying, "I'll trust you to bring me what I need, but I'll tell you what to bring me." No trust. Only control.
This makes me call most of the "saints" around me sinners, recognizing that we have a whole lot in common.
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