Changing Gates

I’m sure you’re good at following rules. I am .

Correction: We’re good at following certain rules. We’re good at following the rule we don’t mind following.

For example: Robbing convenience stores is wrong. It’s stealing, and it’s a sin. I am proud to say that is a rule I have never broken. Yep, that’s a rule I don’t mind following.

At the same time, we can be equally good at pointing out the sins of others. We proudly announce the fact that such-and-such sins are wrong and we refuse to have anything to do with such sins. And which sins are those? The ones that don’t tempt us.

We proudly display a gate by which we keep a particular sin out of our lives ….

… yet we’ve made it easy for sin to just walk around that gate in other ways.

• We put up gates against cheating in business and taxes, but let selfishness walk around it.
• We put up a gate against lying, but let gossip subtly slip past.
• We put up a gate against acts of homosexuality, but let gluttony waddle around the gate.

I wonder if this is what my friends see:

Christians have a bad reputation for being known for what we’re against. I’m all for keeping sin at bay in my life, but let me switch the gate metaphor. I don’t necessarily glorify God by announcing the gates I use to keep sin out; I glorify Him by pointing to another gate. Jesus said,

“I am the gate; whoever enters through me will be saved. They will come in and go out, and find pasture. The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full” (John 10:9-10).

I don’t need all those other gates when I stay close to this One.