Grieving Over Sin

This has been on my mind so much today. What is our (the Christian's) response to be to sin?

Our own sin.
The sin of those close to us.
The sin of our country.
The sin of our leaders.

Sin.

How would God have us deal with it?

Do we turn a blind eye?
Do we go into love-overdrive?
Do we weep before the Lord and beg His mercy?
Do we try to justify it? ( Lord, help us if we do! )

When I gave my life to the Lord, I remember hearing a Bible study teacher say something along the lines of, "Ask God to help you grieve over your sin the way that He does".

I did that. I still do that. And, God changed my mind about sin. He is faithful to expose it in my life, and to make me grieve over it.

I want to have the same opinions of sin that God does. I want to WANT to see it eradicated from my life.
From the lives of those I love.
From my country.
From my leaders.

Last night, our Precept class was studying 1 Corinthians 5. In this passage, Paul is addressing the church at Corinth, and the fact that they are accepting sin in their midst. It's quite important to see from this passage that the person committing the sin is one that professes to be a brother in Christ.

If this were just someone who was visiting the Corinth church, Paul would have handled this completely differently. He says as much toward the end of the passage.

Someone who doesn't have Jesus as their Lord and Savior, per Scripture, is under bondage to sin..sin is their master.

Paul is addressing the church regarding someone in their midst who claims to have Jesus as his Master, yet is living as one in slavery to sin and to satan.

As I was digging through this passage, it gave me great peace. It answered for me some deep questions I have had about a decision my husband and I have made regarding some people in our lives who professes to belong to Jesus, yet live as those who are in bondage to satan.

I don't want to go into the details, I simply want to praise God that His Word is so sufficient.
It really will answer all of our concerns in this life, if only we will spend time studying it.

Hearing from the Apostle Paul in this book also made me think about my country, and about how much sin we tolerate. I realize that I can't change the decisions that other people make, but would the Lord have me sit idly by while it all unfolds?

What does He want from me as I watch people in my country fight for the right to murder the unborn...for the freedom for a man to marry a man, or a woman to marry a woman?

What does the Lord expect from those of us who know and love Him, as our countrymen try to legislate against His Word?

I found my answers in the two passages that we studied last night, in week two of the Precept study, "The Sermon On The Mount".

We were in 1 Corinthians 5, and Ezekiel 9.

Here are the texts for you to study for yourself.

Note who in Ezekiel 9 were spared. Why were they spared?

Why was God sending the executioners into the city...see v.4 and v10.

This passage spoke volumes to me, and gave me much to think and pray about today as I went to the polls.

May we all pray over our nation, and mourn over the sin found herein.

In Him,
Jes


1Cor 5:1
It is actually reported that there is immorality among you, and immorality of such a kind as does not exist even among the Gentiles, that someone has his father's wife.
1Cor 5:2
You have become arrogant and have not mourned instead, so that the one who had done this deed would be removed from your midst.
1Cor 5:3
For I, on my part, though absent in body but present in spirit, have already judged him who has so committed this, as though I were present.
1Cor 5:4
In the name of our Lord Jesus, when you are assembled, and I with you in spirit, with the power of our Lord Jesus,
1Cor 5:5
{I have decided} to deliver such a one to Satan for the destruction of his flesh, so that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus.
1Cor 5:6
Your boasting is not good. Do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump {of dough?}
1Cor 5:7
Clean out the old leaven so that you may be a new lump, just as you are {in fact} unleavened. For Christ our Passover also has been sacrificed.
1Cor 5:8
Therefore let us celebrate the feast, not with old leaven, nor with the leaven of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.
1Cor 5:9
I wrote you in my letter not to associate with immoral people;
1Cor 5:10
I {did} not at all {mean} with the immoral people of this world, or with the covetous and swindlers, or with idolaters, for then you would have to go out of the world.
1Cor 5:11
But actually, I wrote to you not to associate with any so-called brother if he is an immoral person, or covetous, or an idolater, or a reviler, or a drunkard, or a swindler--not even to eat with such a one.
1Cor 5:12
For what have I to do with judging outsiders? Do you not judge those who are within {the church?}
1Cor 5:13
But those who are outside, God judges. REMOVE THE WICKED MAN FROM AMONG YOURSELVES.

Eze 9:1
Then He cried out in my hearing with a loud voice saying, "Draw near, O executioners of the city, each with his destroying weapon in his hand."
Eze 9:2
Behold, six men came from the direction of the upper gate which faces north, each with his shattering weapon in his hand; and among them was a certain man clothed in linen with a writing case at his loins. And they went in and stood beside the bronze altar.
Eze 9:3
Then the glory of the God of Israel went up from the cherub on which it had been, to the threshold of the temple. And He called to the man clothed in linen at whose loins was the writing case.
Eze 9:4
The LORD said to him, "Go through the midst of the city, {even} through the midst of Jerusalem, and put a mark on the foreheads of the men who sigh and groan over all the abominations which are being committed in its midst."
Eze 9:5
But to the others He said in my hearing, "Go through the city after him and strike; do not let your eye have pity and do not spare.
Eze 9:6
"Utterly slay old men, young men, maidens, little children, and women, but do not touch any man on whom is the mark; and you shall start from My sanctuary." So they started with the elders who {were} before the temple.
Eze 9:7
And He said to them, "Defile the temple and fill the courts with the slain. Go out!" Thus they went out and struck down {the people} in the city.
Eze 9:8
As they were striking {the people} and I {alone} was left, I fell on my face and cried out saying, "Alas, Lord GOD! Are You destroying the whole remnant of Israel by pouring out Your wrath on Jerusalem?"
Eze 9:9
Then He said to me, "The iniquity of the house of Israel and Judah is very, very great, and the land is filled with blood and the city is full of perversion; for they say, 'The LORD has forsaken the land, and the LORD does not see!'
Eze 9:10
"But as for Me, My eye will have no pity nor will I spare, but I will bring their conduct upon their heads."
Eze 9:11
Then behold, the man clothed in linen at whose loins was the writing case reported, saying, "I have done just as You have commanded me."