Responses to Sin

Imagine finding out that someone you know has robbed a bank. How would you handle the situation? What if you worked at the bank being robbed, would that change anything? If you yourself were also a bank robber? What then? As you can see, different people handle sin differently.

Let's look at The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne, for example. In the book, Hester Prynne committed adultery and had to wear a scarlet A for the rest of her life as punishment. How did her community respond? Not well. Everybody acted shocked at her sin and they all said that her punishment was too light.

Now let's look at the Bible, in John 8. In this chapter, the people brought an adultress to Jesus and said she should be stoned. Jesus responded in a very surprising way; He said that whoever had never sinned could throw the first stone. Of course, everyone in the crowd had sinned at some time, so they left. After that Jesus kindly told the woman to turn from her sin. 

Needless to say, these two responses are dramatically different. Surely the people in Hester's community had all sinned, just like the people in John 8, but they chose only to focus on what Hester did, because it seemed worse. Jesus, on the other hand, pointed out that we are all sinners. Every small sin is dispicable to God, and everyone deserves to die for their sin. We are only saved by God’s mercy, so we shouldn't condemn others. 

I don't really have to say whose response was better. When dealing with someone else’s sin we should try to act like Jesus acted. As always, we get the best result when we follow His example.

Sections: Balance, Christianity, Confused, Educational Essays, For School, Nonfiction