Careless Sins

As followers of Christ on the road of sanctification, we should be becoming more like Him each day.  This requires effort on our part and obedience in following His Word. As we do our portion the Holy Spirit does His work, and together we leave the old ways and sinful patterns behind.  Certainly one thing we would expect to see is that we deliberately sin less and we are more concerned for others.

Sin always has consequences.  Most of the time, the consequences of our sins affect us, and we must be prepared to take responsibility for those consequences.  At other times, our sin affects others. Even if there are no obvious immediate effects on ourselves or others, we have disrupted our relationship with God.  As David said in Psalm 51, "Against you, you only, have I sinned."  Even our secret sins offend God.

Still, there are the situations where we did not set forth with sin in our hearts.  Our intentions may be good but we hurt someone because we are careless.  We may simply not be paying attention as we should.  Last week, for example, I caused someone temporary suffering because of an act of carelessness.  It was a simple act of speaking the wrong thing to the wrong person.  It was done with the best of intentions and with the hopes of making a bad situation much better, but actually caused confusion. The problem was easily corrected with an apology and I was quickly forgiven, probably because the other party realized my good intentions. 

Two of the seven deadly sins are sloth and pride, and I think this is where most of these careless sins fall.  We are not sinning out of lust, envy, greed, anger, or gluttony.  They occur because we are too lazy to take the time to pay attention to the details to prevent such a thing.  Or we are too prideful to think that such a matter is worth our attention, or that we are too important to have to waste our time with such trivial things.

I have had a problem with remembering names and faces for as long as I can remember remembering.  I am rather introverted, and not very outgoing or facile at making new friendships with strangers.  Yet I am convicted that some of the common courtesies are really the act of determining that other people are important enough that these courtesies require your attention.  In the Bible verse we looked at last week, Philippians 2:3, Paul told us, "...in lowliness of mind let each esteem others better than himself."  If you can remember your own name, you should esteem others enough to remember theirs, and I am convicted of this sin of caring less-- being careless. 

If you stop and think a minute, there is an almost limitless list of careless sins.  Perhaps forgetting to say a "thank you" for someone that opens a door for you, or not opening the door for someone in the first place.  (Of course, I think driving too slowly in the left lane shows a careless lack of concern for others.)  Our rushed society encourages a certain amount of obliviousness, as we focus on what we need to get done and what needs to get checked off the list.  There often seems to not be enough time to care.

It takes effort to resist temptation.  Resisting is an active process.  In the Latin, "re-" can mean "against," and sister means "stand firm."  To resist, then, is to stand against.  We are faced with a temptation or a sinful desire, and we must resist.  Sometimes the temptations are subtle, and before we know it, we are caught up in a sin.  These careless sins are like that, and because these things that we should be caring about are not deemed important, we likewise deem the resulting sin as unimportant.  We may not even be aware that we are sinning or causing suffering.

It takes effort to care.  Caring is an active process.  It requires us to love your neighbor as yourself (Luke 10:27).  This is actually God's Word and Commandment.  Careless sins are because we are too lazy or prideful to carry this out.  We are putting ourselves and our concerns above others, and not taking the time and effort to esteem others better than ourselves.  Whether we care enough about or neighbor or not, God cares that we care.