Sin from the Start

Readings:
I Chronicles 10
Acts 6

Focus:
Acts 6:1a:"During this period, when disciples were growing in number, a grievance arose on the part of those who spoke Greek, against those who spoke the language of the Jews."

Even though the brand new church of Jesus Christ was beginning with great grace and wonders, and even miracles, it did not take long before a grievance came up between different members of the church. They fell into ethnic camps and started making accusations of each other. The apostles had to settle this problem by setting up more of a church structure, in effect starting the order of deacons.

If I had naive expectations, I might have thought that the very first Christians would have been without flaw, showing us succeeding generations the ideal of what it ought to be like to be a Christian. But instead, from the very start, sin crept in. In this case, either people were taking sides, or else people thought that other people were taking sides. In either case, it was sin.

Sin crept in from the very start because Christians are just like any other people. They are part of the world, and the world is infected with sin. That's why Jesus had to come into the world, to save us from the consequences of that sin. The only difference between Christians and other people is that Christians have acknowledged that fact, have recognized that Jesus took the punishment instead of them, have given their lives to Jesus, and are doing their best to avoid sinning. But being human, they're not able to be perfect.

So Christians need to keep returning to God to confess their new sins and ask for forgiveness. The great thing is that we know that God will forgive us. But we can't let that knowledge make us complacent. We still need to try our best to avoid new sins. Not only is this better for us, but it is also better for everyone else. Thank God that although we are prone to err, he is merciful to forgive!