Having said it is more important to focus on what we repent to, I still feel I need to take a quick look at what we repent from. I hope that the whole focus of this blog will be what we repent to, so one brief post on sin from is not out of order.
What exactly is sin? Over the years the church has created long lists, in much the same way that the Pharisees did in Jesus' day (which he criticised them harshly for). Over time I have come to wonder how much of what we label sin is actually an offence against some absolute definition. Don't get me wrong. I believe that there are things which are morally wrong. It's just that I wonder if many of the other things that are encapsulated in the law are more for our benefit than because God suffers a sense of outrage when we disregard them.
In Perelandra C S Lewis expounds the idea of laws which serve no purpose other than for man to demonstrate his love for God by obedience. It's an interesting concept from a thoroughly fascinating book. It reminds me of the verses which are scattered through both John's gospel and letters which follow the form: "if you love me you will keep my commands."
It seems to me then that there are potentially three categories of sin. Offences against God, offences against others and offences against own best interests. In its simplest expression sin is not obeying God's commands which, according to Jesus, can be expressed in two statements: love God and love others.
In my experience love does not start with obedience. It is the other way around. Obedience springs out of love. It may be something of a chicken and egg problem, but it seems to me that the path to the kingdom starts by actively seeking to move towards God, rather than trying to clean our lives up. Ultimately of course both are necessary, but the former makes the latter easier. I could spend a lifetime throwing rocks out of my back yard but unless I start planting flowers I'll never have a garden.
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