You know, I don’t get this sinners bit that so many Christians see as an integral part of who we are. We’re sinners and we can’t help it??? Where’s the hope for mankind if this is the truth? Christ died for our sins???  So that we can continue sinning with impunity?

As challenging as it may be to avoid, sin is still a choice we make.  We don’t have to do bad stuff, we can think our way out of that and into being good and kind and caring and selfless and loving. If we focus on this and live it, where is the space for sin? Short answer – there’s none. And the person who is widely accepted as the greatest individual to have trod this globe, wasn’t a sinner, said to us – “the things that I do, you can do also”. The implication there is that we have to be like him, i.e., without sin, and clearly he felt that we can achieve that wonderful state (otherwise, he would not have said that), in order to do like he did.

This all indicates, to me, that the way in which we conduct ourselves is a choice. The outcome of the belief that we are sinners, seems to me to rationalize sin, i.e., we can’t help it.  How can that be true? That is another way of eschewing responsibility for our own conduct – ‘I did something bad but I couldn’t help it because I’m a sinner’.

I think that we all know and understand and cherish the harmony and grace and serenity that being good, kind and loving brings to our lives.  With pure thought and practice, we can move ourselves ever closer to a sin-free life.  What a blessing.

Zed