Topical Studies
What the Bible says about
Whatever is not from Faith is Sin
(From Forerunner Commentary)
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Matthew 6:31-34
In His Sermon on the Mount, our Savior gives us some basic but very helpful and necessary advice about living as Christians in this world. Nevertheless, we worry and fret and agonize. We are anxious and overly concerned. We are troubled and lose sleep. We make ourselves unhappy and apprehensive. We put limits on ourselves and hinder ourselves. We make ourselves sick and prematurely old. We allow our fears to put distance between us and other people. In this vein, American General Douglas MacArthur wisely said, "Worry, doubt, fear and despair are the enemies which slowly bring us down to the ground and turn us to dust before we die." Dutch World War II survivor Corrie Ten Boom echoes this: "Worry does not empty tomorrow of its sorrow; it empties today of its strength." These are just some of the results of worry. Seeing them, we would do well to destroy worry from our lives! If it were possible, we would be much better off free of all anxiety. In fact, it can even be seen as a sin, something we need to repent of because, as Romans 14:23 says, ". . . whatever is not from faith is sin." Our anxieties reveal that we do not trust God's providence and care as much as we should. Following are three effects of worry and the destructiveness that comes with it. The first is that worry becomes a barrier. Fear, timidity, and anxiety cause many to limit their hopes, goals, plans, and efforts, forming an obstruction to achievement. In other words, to change the metaphor, people's worries handcuff them, keeping them from acting or progressing, even when it is clear that it is good and in their own best interest to do so. Solomon depicts this in Proverbs 26:13: "The lazy man says, 'There is a lion in the road! A fierce lion is in the streets!'" What are the odds that a man-eating predator would be lurking out one's front door? Such people imagine hazards and dangers that are not realistic, and so they cannot venture out into the main street of life. They cannot reach any real measure of success in life because their fears imprison them within the small and limited space where they feel safe. A better approach would be to follow the advice of American automobile magnate Henry Ford: "I believe God is managing affairs and that He doesn't need any advice from me. With God in charge, I believe everything will work out for the best in the end. So what is there to worry about?" The second effect is that worry is a divider. Imagining the worst of people and situations separates and alienates others. Worrying about how someone else lives his life, how he does things, the way he thinks, and what he believes is a great destroyer of unity. Seen in this dim light, others become different and alien, people to avoid. Fears like this destroy trust. Notice God's exhortation in Zechariah 8:17 (The Amplified Bible): "And let none of you think or imagine or devise evil or injury in your hearts against his neighbor, and love no false oath, for all these things I hate, says the LORD." When we think evil of neighbors and brethren, it breeds suspicion and fear. Instead, as He advises in verse 16, we should "speak every man the truth with his neighbor; render the truth and pronounce the judgment or verdict that makes for peace." Even if there are differences—and we can be certain that there are—they are probably not within our abilities or authority to change. The Greek Stoic philosopher Epictetus agrees, writing, "There is only one way to happiness and that is to cease worrying about things which are beyond the power of our will." Why dwell on things that we cannot change? It will only result in an ulcer—or worse! The third effect, the worst of all, is that worry becomes a false god. Here, the culprit is self-will! Worry comes from wanting our will done: the will to survive, to win, to be well thought of, to be free from hunger and pain, etc. Those things are our will! They may be God's will, too, but He is not limited by us. While we know intellectually that His will supersedes our own, our worries and fears demonstrate that we are still trying to place our own will before His. When we think we need something, we want it now and on our terms. But we know from experience that not everything works out as we would like, so we fear that our desires will not be realized according to the parameters we have set. If we allow worry to take hold, we begin to desire our will done rather than God's. In this way, in elevating our will above His, we set ourselves up as a false god. In these situations, we fail to remember that God's will is perfect at all times and that He always knows and does what is best for us and for all. His will is far more desirable than ours! In fact, we do not even know what is good. Yet, we still try to impose our will more than we should. British Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli saw anxiety as an idol, describing its effects: "Worry is a god, invisible but omnipotent. It steals the bloom from the cheek and lightness from the pulse; it takes away the appetite, and turns the hair gray." Worry is a false god that does nobody any good. Therefore, we must concede that we must eliminate worry, fears, and anxieties from our lives. We need to relax our grip on our will and worries. They are, in a word, idolatry! With all of our hearts, we need to leave our worries and cares at God's feet (I Peter 5:7). We need to desire His will to be done in everything (Matthew 6:10) and in His perfect timeliness (Ecclesiastes 3:11). If we do, we will enjoy, not only our hearts desire, but also great peace.
Dan Elmore
Are You a Worrywart?
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1 Corinthians 6:12
The apostle Paul tells us in Romans 14:23, “Whatever is not from faith is sin.” This indicates that there is more to Christian living than merely following rules. It is key for a Christian to understand the principles involved in God's laws, not just the letter-of-the-law wording. Those in the world argue that the law is done away altogether, and believing this, they find numerous gray areas. To support this belief they will use I Corinthians 6:12. However, just a few verses earlier, he seems to say something totally different! Notice verses 9-10: Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived. Neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor homosexuals, nor sodomites, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners will inherit the kingdom of God. Paul does not intend for this list to encompass every sin possible, but he does cover a lot of ground. In addition, he begins verse 9 with “the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom,” which casts a wide net. So if fornicators, idolaters, adulterers, homosexuals, thieves, the covetous, and drunkards will not enter the Kingdom of God, how then can all things be lawful? Verse 12, we find, is a poor translation. Paul is paraphrasing what some people were saying—and still say today. Notice that he repeats “all things are lawful for me, but . . .,” following each phrase with an objection. The Contemporary English Version renders verse 12 as, “Some of you say, 'We can do anything we want to.' But I tell you that not everything is good for us. So I refuse to let anything have power over me.” The New International Version is similar: “'I have the right to do anything,' you say—but not everything is beneficial. 'I have the right to do anything'—but I will not be mastered by anything.” Clearly, Paul is telling us what others have said and giving his response. We are free-moral agents, in other words. We can make our own decisions. We can sin, if we wish to, but there are consequences. Paul says he refuses to let “anything have power over me.” He implies that he keeps a close watch on his thoughts and actions. Notice verse 9, again from the Contemporary English Version: Don't you know that evil people won't have a share in the blessings of God's kingdom? Don't fool yourselves! No one who is immoral or worships idols or is unfaithful in marriage or is a pervert or behaves like a homosexual . . . . Are there gray areas here? Not to God, but our definition of “evil people” might be different. Certainly “immoral” is open to wide interpretation these days in the world. To “worship idols” can be looked at in different ways. Is “unfaithful in marriage” just an affair or is it more? Each of us knows exactly what these things mean to us, and that is as it should be. We do not need an exhaustive list, or we should not, of all the possibilities of each category. We should know the principle involved. This is one reason we do not see many lawyers as members of the church. Lawyers are taught to see everything as a gray area. “It depends on what the meaning of the word 'is' is,” as the lawyer Bill Clinton famously said. It seems that, as we grow in the faith, gray areas disappear, and the line becomes clearer. Satan and his world, on the other hand, are busy blurring the lines, trying to make us feel guilty or prudish if we judge something to be sin and choose not to participate. I have known ministers who thought they were the town sheriff and had to be in on all decisions in our lives. Others, though, taught the principles involved and left it to church members to make decisions for themselves. Once our teachers have taught us God's way, the burden is on us, not them, to know right from wrong. We must know where the lines are.
Mike Ford
Do We See the Line?
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Revelation 21:8
What causes the sin of fear? The second item listed in Revelation 21:8 points to the answer—unbelief. Psalm 78:13-16 gives an example of how this works: For he divided the sea before them and led them through! The water stood up like walls beside them! In the daytime he led them by a cloud, and at night by a pillar of fire. He split open the rocks in the wilderness to give them plenty of water, as from a gushing spring. He made streams pour from the rock, making the waters flow down like a river! (New Living Translation [NLT]) Listed are miracles God performed to provide for the needs of His people. Continuing in Psalm 78:17-21, we see Israel's response to God's clear display of His love and care for them: Yet they kept on with their sin, rebelling against the Most High in the desert. They willfully tested God in their hearts, demanding the foods they craved. They even spoke against God himself, saying, "God can't give us food in the desert. Yes, he can strike a rock so water gushes out, but he can't give his people bread and meat." When the Lord heard them, he was angry. The fire of his wrath burned against Jacob. Yes, his anger rose against Israel. . . . (NLT) Even though God had provided water in abundance, they were afraid that He would not provide bread and meat. What was the basis, the cause, for this fear? The answer follows in Psalm 78:22 (NLT): ". . . for they did not believe God or trust him to care for them." Amazing! After all God did for them, they still could not muster the necessary faith and trust in God and His love for them (Hebrews 4:2). When push comes to shove, do we believe God's promises? Do we trust in the extent of His care and love for us (John 17:23) and that He will come to our aid (Psalm 34:19)? What was God's response to the Israelites' display of fear? "The fire of his wrath burned against Jacob" (Psalm 78:21, NLT), foreshadowing Revelation 21:8. Fire is the response to fear from the God who does not change (Malachi 3:6). Fear, then, is the result of a lack of faith, not believing in God's power and especially His love and willingness to act on our behalf. The fearful are that way because they lack faith. Christ reveals this connection in Mark 4:40: "But He said to them, 'Why are you so fearful? How is it that you have no faith?'" When Christ saw fear, His immediate response was to question that person's faith. Fear is a very human reaction. As Christ indicates, how we respond depends on our degree of faith. When faith is weak or non-existent, fear becomes the controlling factor rather than faith. We begin to live by sight and not by faith (II Corinthians 5:7), and without faith, we cannot be saved: "And to whom did He swear that they would not enter His rest, but to those who did not obey? So we see that they could not enter in because of unbelief" (Hebrews 3:18-19). Our rest is God's Kingdom. Just as a lack of faith—unbelief—barred ancient Israel from entering their rest, a lack of faith can bar us from entering ours, keeping us out of the Family of God. Without faith, it is impossible to please God (Hebrews 11:6). We are seeing that sin is not the result of weakness as we normally think of it, as in we are "weak in the flesh." Yes, there is weakness, but what is the root of sin—its cause? When looked at closely, the root of sin is "unbelief," as Israel's example illustrates. Unbelief—a lack of faith—causes and leads to producing sin in our lives, pointing to our real foundational weakness: a lack of faith. This is Paul's message in Romans 14:23: " . . . for whatever is not from faith is sin."
Pat Higgins
The Sin of Fear (Part One)
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