Serious affronts to God

Romans 13:12-13:
Let us put aside the deeds of darkness and put on the armor of light. Let us behave decently, as in the daytime, not in orgies and drunkenness, not in sexual immorality and debauchery, not in dissension and jealousy.

Often I am just like the Pharisee who prayed and said, "God, I'm glad I'm not like these terrible sinners—I praise you that I'm not like this tax collector ... or this prostitute ... or this homosexual ... or this lazy neighbor ... or this woman who had an abortion." Many of us see ourselves in terms of how much better we are than those around us who participate in obvious sin.

But the weight of various sins is not something we should determine based on cultural and societal standards; we should see sin through God's eyes and be appalled by the things that are an affront to him.

In Romans 13:12-13, Paul tells us some of the things that are an affront to God. We would agree with these things: orgies and drunkenness (terrible things), sexual immorality and debauchery (just awful, I'm glad I don't do those things), dissension and jealousy.... Hey wait, why are those included in the list?

Webster's Dictionary defines dissension as "discord." Are we sowing discord among the brethren? Do we like to discuss the problems we see in our local churches? Do we talk about the ways other people are letting us down? Do we enjoy poiting out the failures of our government? This sort of activity is placed at the same level of sinfulness as participation in orgies, drunkenness, sexual immorality, and debauchery. As is jealousy, which is another common pitful for me personally and for many of us.

How do we overcome these things if they are every bit as terrible in God's eyes as the other things in this list in Romans 13?

Romans 13:14—Rather, clothe yourselves with the Lord Jesus Christ, and do not think about how to gratify the desires of the sinful nature.

It's not easy, but we have to do it. God grant us the grace to live as we should and to see ourselves as we are, not in terms of how we are better than others. And God grant us mercy when we fail to live up to this standard.