By T.J. Clayton

 

So, I’m sitting in my hotel room looking at the coffee-pot thinking, “Hmmm...could coffee be a sin?”  Coffee?  You know, that bold, deliciously morning-friendly, can’t-live-without-it, friend-of-the-poor-and-the-wealthy drink?  Could something that wonderful be a sin?  Surely not!

 

Yet I had heard stories of how early Pentecostal pioneer preachers railed against the evils of that dark liquid stimulant.  I had to find out.  So, what did I do?  I did the first thing that anyone does when they want to know more about a subject.  I went to the dictionary. 

 

Definition and Translation

Sin:  1.a transgression of the divine law, 2. any act regarded as such a transgression, esp. a willful or deliberate violation of some religious or moral principal, 3. any reprehensible action, behavior, etc., 4. a sinful act.  Okay so, you get the picture. 

 

What struck me as odd – interesting, unexpected, never taught in church - is that sin is never a thing!  It has no thingness.  In every definition of the word sin is an action, a living, moving, measured by space-time, action.  This may not stupefy you like it did me, but in the midst of this landmark discovery I had to put the computer down and take a victory lap down the hall of my hotel.  You mean to tell me that sin isn’t a thing? 

 

Everything began to make sense.  As I searched the Bible I found out that sin is something you do or don’t do – i.e. the sin of omission vs. commission (Numbers 5:7; James 4:17).  This had profound ramifications for me as a not-so-intelligent individual.  It then dawned on me, if a thing cannot be sin, and sin is an action, then sin must be the wrong action applied to a thing.  Simply put, sin is a perversion of a neutral object (an object that is neither inherently good nor bad).  This is so easy to understand, just watch. 

 

The Evil Iron Rod (Insert Scary Music)

Take an iron rod for example.  Is an iron rod good?  No.  Bad?  No.  It’s just an iron rod.  Now, is an iron rod good if it is used for construction? Good enough. How about the same iron rod used to beat someone’s brains out?  Definitely not good.  You see the distinction?  Building = good.  Bashing brains = bad. 

 

I’ll even take it a step further.  The iron rod used to beat a person’s brains out is not a bad iron rod.   Prove it?  I will.  Is the iron rod going to stand in judgment for what it has done?  Not according to my last reading of Revelation.  The person who used the iron rod will be judged.  So, even an object used for a bad reason is still in itself not evil.  Wow! 

 

Out on a Limb with Porn

Now, before I quit, I’m going to see how far I can press this issue.  Let’s take something that we say is so obviously a sin.  How about a pornographic magazine?  (I bet you are just waiting to see how I’m going to make this work.)  Let’s say that I’m in the woods camping with my buddies.  I eat too many beans-and-weenies the night before.  My stomach is hurting and I need to handle some business.  I go to handle my business but I forget to bring toilet paper along with me.  No worries, because just before I go to grab some leaves off a tree, I see a pornographic magazine on the ground.  I rip out a few pages (without looking at the pictures) and I wipe. 

 

Now, I’ve used a pornographic magazine but I haven’t sinned!  Do you agree?  The sin is in the use or abuse of the magazine.  Not the magazine itself.  The magazine will not stand before the throne of judgment, the publishers, participants, and spectators will.  And neither will I be judged for my wiping! 

 

Judgment Day Sinful Objects

It is the use or abuse of objects that make them sin.  Granted, some objects are, by their nature, more prone to abuse than others (i.e. the porn magazine).  However, all objects are simply that – objects, neutral things that have no value on the sin-scale. 

 

The line to the judgment seat will be filled with people.  People who made decisions, decisions to sin or not to sin.  Things (clothing, movies, books, weapons, televisions) will not be in line before the judgment seat. 

 

So, the next time you play the sin-calling game, ask yourself, “Could I use this to wipe?”  Thanks.

 

ninetyandnine.com

 

© 2006, TJ Clayton

 

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TJ Clayton travels across the U.S. and the world as the administrative assistant to Bishop T.F. Tenney.  He is currently obtaining his Master’s degree part-time.  When he has finished his Ph.d. he plans to get paid writing for 90&9.com.