Bad or Empty?

I tend to do things that are bad but I tend to feel no guilt for them. This could be a result in my desensitized mind and soul or it could also be the result of my disposition to do bad things.

Let's face it many of us break the speed limit, we are dishonest, we covet, we expose ourselves to raw human filth through media, we are prideful, we are jealous, we often spit fire when we are angry. Now I am sure there are some of you reading this that would never own up to any of these things, so maybe you should stop reading now.

But, for those who do things like this and who don't feel much guilt in doing these things I think I have discovered a reality that I had not before understood.

In the Christian circle these "bad" things we do would be considered sin. They are selfish and make our world about protecting ourselves from everyone and everything around us. They are fulfillment's to the desire of becoming greater than we actually are. These "bad" things are actions we are supposed to stay away from.

If we want to be a "good" Christian you can't do "bad" things.

Now I am all for morality. From a philosophical point of view one must have morality so that one can function in a healthy society. So what makes my morality as a Christian different than from a person who does not have faith, or does not have faith in the same God that I worship? Why is my morality better?

Many would say our morality is better because it comes from Jesus. But even the Islamic religion views Jesus as an extremely moral teacher. Someone that they could learn much from.

Here's what I think. I myself am moving away from the moral theology that I have understood all of my life, and I am moving towards a light and dark theology. It seems that this kind of theology does not hold up in court. While I still retain my morality and I still find it valuable in looking at the person of Jesus I have come to the realization that it is meaningless on it's own.

I have written about my light and dark theology in the past on this blog but another way of putting it is being led by love. I recently heard a sermon that put into words what I feel about moral Christianity. Instead of being led by what is right and what is wrong, we must be led by love.

To describe this new theology that I have come to understand must be written over many posts, so the first post I would like to write is the post about how sin is viewed in this kind of theology.

Like I said morality has it's piece to play in this theology and often times your moral actions are the best indicator of what is going on in the heart. However, the view that sin is bad needs to be changed.

Because bad is not the right description for what sin actually is.

Sin is empty. Not like in a, 'my cup is empty and I want God's love to fill it up', more like an emptiness that is meaningless and dull and devoid of vitality. At least those are some definitions that come with the word empty. It's like having a draught on the land for five years. There is lack of everything.

This emptiness is full of sorrow for those who know the Good News because when you are filled with the love of Christ it is understood that when you see someone who is empty it is heartbreaking. The difference between a sinful life and a Christ life is that one is empty and the other if full.

See Christians are supposed actually believe the Good News they proclaim. I think one of the reasons the people in the world don't trust the church is because the church doesn't believe it's own Good News. Maybe that's one of the reasons why people scoff at us and call us hypocrites. It's not about doing the good thing morally anymore. It's about actually proclaiming the Good News.

Maybe it's more about the love that we feel and understand from our own walks that should define how we view the people around us. Maybe we should stop viewing people as black and white and start viewing them from a Love theology.