Sin Taken Lightly

Luke 3:8 "8 Produce fruit in keeping with repentance. And do not begin to say to yourselves, 'We have Abraham as our father.' For I tell you that out of these stones God can raise up children for Abraham."

God requires us to prove we are born again when we say we are, through our actions and attitudes. When the attitudes are wrong, then the actions will follow. One cannot have pure attitudes and wicked actions.
 
We take sin so lightly in these days of apostasy that we tend to believe the psychological foolishness that teaches all men are basically good, when the Bible teaches the opposite.
 
Jeremiah 17:9 "The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?"
Because the culture as a whole has bought into the paganistic view that no one is truly evil and is merely acting out the hurt that is inside, we have a tendency to comfort the wicked man while beating up on the victim.

How many times have we seen those who jump up in court to "forgive" the perpetrator who is not repentant, while making the victim feel guilty if they don't feel compelled to forgive the rapist or murderer.

Those who get up in the courtroom to tell the perp that they forgive him, may make him cry but it does not change his heart. The Bible clearly says that a wicked man will not be changed by relieving him of his accountability. Grandiose gesture of forgiving the perp in the courtroom makes everyone feel all gooy inside, but really only masquerades as kindness. Those same people didn't need to do that in public they could have visited the perp in jail to do it, mostly what they accomplished was for those watching to praise them. When what they did was not Biblical.

We do not forgive people to get them to like Christ, we forgive when they are repentant to show them mercy and because Christ told us to do it. We withhold forgiveness from an unrepentant person to show them their sinfulness and to show them that Christ will not forgive without repentance. If we want to love them, then we can go to the jail and bring them the gospel, the true gospel of repentance and reconciliation.
 
“But when grace is shown to the wicked, they do not learn righteousness; even in a land of uprightness they go on doing evil and do not regard the majesty of the Lord (Isaiah 26:10).
I am not happy when I see sports stars who are Christians get out on the field to bend down in front of thousands of people to pray before the game. I have to ask a couple of questions, first, what are they praying about, secondly why do they do it in the area when they could have done it in the locker room or at home? I have to believe that praying in public to be seen by men is a way of motivating others to praise them.
 
Matthew 6:6 ""But you, when you pray, go into your inner room, close your door and pray to your Father who is in secret, and your Father who sees what is done in secret will reward you."
Matthew 6:1 ""Beware of practicing your righteousness before men to be noticed by them; otherwise you have no reward with your Father who is in heaven."

There is a lot of showing off in our culture, moments of silence, phrases like "we are praying for your family" expressed by those who have no interest in God. "We are praying for you" has become a greeting now, even among the seculars, it is meaningless.
 
Luke 10:27 "And he answered, “You shall love the Lord your
 God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself.”

When we love God will all our heart, there is no need to seek the praise of men, Christ in us is all we need or want.

John 14:21 "Whoever has my commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves me. And he who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and manifest myself to him.”
John 14:15 "“If you love me, you will keep my commandments."