Following the discussion on sin the week before, the question was whether it was true that if I was never convicted of any crimes that could have put me to jail, then I was not a sinner. Did it sound right?
Another question came right afterward: Was I better than the “official” sinners who were convicted of crimes?
I remembered that when I was around twelve years old, I quarreled with one of my sisters. I was never good at arguing or quarreling. I just could not think well under emotion, and my sister knew how to make me extremely mad. I rushed to her and wanted to hit her really hard. I was furious and I did not think of anything else except to release my anger. I was stopped by my other sisters. Today my sister and I enjoy a loving relation. I think she probably have forgotten that incident.
That was just an ordinary fight between siblings. However, it was not hard to imagine a similar situation that could happen on any people. When there were no other people around to help restraining the furious person, what would happen? He or she released the anger, got caught and put to jail. Now he or she would be an official criminal.
There were other times when I was tempted to do wrong things. I would not commit those crimes. Was I morally better? Perhaps, but an equally important reason that I refrained myself from doing those bad things was that I was afraid to be caught and be put to jail. I would disappoint my family and friends. I would bear a criminal record for the rest of my life and my effort to succeed in life would be degraded to nothing.
What if I had nothing to loss after committing a crime? Suppose I had no family or friends to disappoint, or that I believed I had no hope of succeed in the future? What if I was guaranteed that no one would see me when I commit the crimes? Would I going to do those things? Honestly, it would be a lot more likely.
Was I better than the “official” sinners? No, I was not.
When I go to Sunday school, the preacher talks about how the devil always tempt us into sinning. You will inevitably sin again before and after you believe in Jesus again. That will hold true to 99.999999% of the people. What's so special about believing in Jesus if you will always sin? Why does he purify us if we are still not righteous.
Another question that always lingered inside of me was justness for the relatively "better/better principled" people. Better principled people can be taken advantage of by sinners. For example, a psychopath killing a "good" person's loved one. That can traumatize one and hurt him/her for the rest of his/her life. Is that fair to the "good" person?
Another…
Thanks for the post, Dr. Chan. This is a very interesting perspective! We are really the blessed ones to have people around to pivot us to the right path. Because I truly believe that we could've been the ones to commit crimes if similar situations were presented. This post makes me think about the topic of human nature. I wouldn't say I am a bad person, but I also can't imagine how I would've been different growing up in a broken household, poverty, and many other circumstances.
I think this is why hope is important to human. If there are no hope in our world then there aren't any differences between the hell.
in my book you are not a sinner, people just get angry and need a way to release that angry. in this case you were angry at your sister. just do not worry about the past and think about your future