A Rose By Any Other Name…
A Devotional
© 2001 Steve Lattier and Men's Help Ministries

Is still a rose, yes, that is quite a thought provoking old expression. There is another similar consistency that God has in His kingdom as well. What is the one thing that can consistently separate or drive a wedge between you and God? The answer is, of course, sin. Did you know that sin is more than stepping outside the Ten Commandments? Many people are raised completely oblivious to what sin really is. A vast amount of people are brought up to believe that there are only ten sins, of course, those are the ten mentioned in the tablets that Moses carried down the mountain to the nation of Israel. Many people come up with the belief that there are seven sins that are set aside as being worse than the rest. The “seven deadly sins” as it were, they are Pride, Greed, Envy, Wrath, Lust, Gluttony, Sloth. There is not a “list” per se in the Bible that enumerates those, nor is there specific scriptural support for the theory that they are any more “deadly.” The list dates back many hundreds of years to the early Catholic church. Without any of the extras that man has heaped on or tried to categorize it sin is any action that gets between you and God OR takes you on a path away from God. We will chop sin up into its smallest portion so that we can see it for what it really is, and stay far away! Let me stop here and say that even though we are investigating sin we are also part of the New Covenant. We are no longer held prisoner by the Ten Commandments, Jesus paid the sacrifice for all our sin for all eternity!! But, just because he died for our sin and God's grace forgives our sin, that doesn't give us a license to go an and just keep on sinning. Grace should not slow us down or stop us from striving to be Christ-like! There are two major categories of sin, unintentional, in other words sin that you either did not know was a sin or one that you did not intend to commit and intentional, sins where you knew what you were doing was wrong but you did it anyway! God spelled it out for the early Israelites.

The Word:
Leviticus 4:27 " `If a member of the community sins unintentionally and does what is forbidden in any of the LORD's commands, he is guilty.

Remember that we are under grace and can get forgiveness of our sin by repenting of it. That passage shows that you can sin not only unintentionally but in complete and total ignorance of your sin! The first part of the next verse says “when he is made aware of his sin…” In each of the two major categories there are two minor ones to help us classify sin. In each one either intentional or unintentional there lie sins of commission and sins of omission. What are they you ask? Well sometimes you don't even have to do something to someone to sin against them. Sometimes the sin can come in by you simply NOT doing anything at all. That is a sin of omission. Here is a quick example of an sin of omission.

The Word:
Leviticus 5:1 " `If a person sins because he does not speak up when he hears a public charge to testify regarding something he has seen or learned about, he will be held responsible.

A sin of omission can be that simple or it could be more complicated like not stopping another person from sinning when you had the time, power and influence to do so. We are after all Christians. Remember what Jesus taught in Matthew 25:40 and 45 whatever we do, or do not do, to one another we also do to him! So up to this point, we haven't even named a single sin but we have four different categories to classify sins. Do we need them? Well, yes. God had them included in the Bible for our understanding. The more we understand about sin the easier it is to beat! Just like soldiers that study the enemy, we should learn what we can about sin, well only if we want to win…

The Word:
Matthew 5:29 If your right eye causes you to sin, gouge it out and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to be thrown into hell. [30] And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to go into hell.

Is God telling us to start hacking bits of our bodies off to keep us from sinning? That is in fact what the passage states. Jesus always taught in parables and made comparisons. Literally no, Jesus didn't want anyone to chop off a hand or to loose an eye. He was referring to getting your life cleaned up. He told them to just get rid of the things that led them to sin. What do you have left over in your life that still drags you down? Perhaps there is some music left over from before you were saved that keeps sin in your life. What about a cabinet full of liquor that you keep dipping into and it causes you to slip. What about any dirty magazines or movies? It may not even be a physical “thing” that is still there hanging around it could be thing that you do, or a place that you go that leads you right into sin. God want us to simply admit that we have sinned, then stop sinning, through the process of repentance.

The Word:
Psalms 32:5 Then I acknowledged my sin to you and did not cover up my iniquity. I said, "I will confess my transgressions to the LORD"-- and you forgave the guilt of my sin. Selah

We humans have an amazing ability to cover up and rationalize sin. We often times will rationalize it so long that we feel that the sinful act was justified because of the circumstances and therefore not sin anymore! HOLD IT! Not sin anymore? That is just wrong. Sin is and always will be sin, no matter what the extenuating circumstances are. I have heard people say “I had to lie because they just couldn't handle the truth..” It is still a lie, period. “I had to cheat on her because she cheated on me first” Hello? You are sinning pal, period! We also categorize sin into different “levels” of how bad it is. Christian there is only one level, and that is sin. I know Christians who truly believe that someone who cheats on their wife (adultery) has done something worse than someone who is promiscuous before marriage (fornication). Not true. If it takes you away from God then it is sin and you must repent. Homosexuality scares the living daylights out of many people, Christians and non-Christians alike. Is it really any worse than a simple lie? To our flesh, perhaps, but in God's kingdom they both take you away from Him and His will! Let me give you an example of two prevalent sins that many Christians have “rated.” A man caught in homosexual sin and a man who is caught in adultery. I can guarantee that you have thought about both of those and have a natural, flesh based aversion to the man caught in the homosexual sin. In all actuality he has committed three sins, lust, fornication and homosexual sin. The adulterer has committed more! He is potentially involved in lust, fornication, adultery, lying and we can't even count the sins against his wife's and his children's spirit. I won't even mention the example he is putting forth (remember Matthew 18:6) to his children. Christian we have forgotten that just because God hates sin, doesn't mean that he hates the person who is often trapped by it! God loves the person caught up in the lies of homosexuality just as much as he loves the alcoholic spouse abuser. God absolutely wants them to stop. God absolutely wants them to come to Him with a repentant heart! But he loves them still!

The Word:
Luke 15:7 I tell you that in the same way there will be more rejoicing in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who do not need to repent.

Just because we don't like one sin more than another does not give us the right to judge how bad was another persons sin. Let God be God and He will judge the hearts of men, not us. We must practice putting our opinions aside and start ministering to people. There is nothing wrong with pointing out to a person that they are in sin. Quite to the contrary, we should tell them. Now you will have to season your message with salt, of course but let them know the truth. None of us are perfect, as a matter of fact the last perfect human got crucified for the rest of us! We ALL sin, even on our best day, God says that we are just rotten! (Isaiah 64:6) Not one single one of us can or will make it to Heaven because of our own ability to stay out of sin! Let each of us dedicate ourselves to being a minister of the grace and mercy that we received when God forgave us, instead of a missionary of the guilt, shame and prejudice of the enemy! No matter how we categorize it, no matter what we call it, a sin by any other name is still a sin!


Pray with me: Father show me my prejudices, show me my sins! I love you Lord and am sorry for trying to categorize sins into a neat little package that I am comfortable with. God you hate them all! Help me Father to see sin through your eyes and through your heart. Open my eyes Lord to the many opportunities I have to show people the grace that you have given me. Father, when I condemn someone because I don't like their sin I am not only judging them I am working for the enemy. I beg, Lord, for your help in treating all sin as just that, SIN I ask this humbly in Jesus name. Amen!


If you are not saved and would like more information please email me, see me, or visit us at http://sites.netscape.net/pastorstevel/menshelp.html then click on the link for your free ticket!

Download the MS Word version, just: {CLICK HERE}}

To Subscribe or Unsubscribe to this Devotion send an email with the appropriate subject line to: MensHelpDevotional@JESUSaves.every1.net