Not Sharing

           Do not be hasty in the laying on of hands, and do not share in the sins of others. Keep yourself pure. (I Timothy 5:22)

Today’s is a hard one. The part about not being hasty in the laying on of hands isn’t so much the problem unless your love language is Touch. We aren’t pastors. We don’t tend to be involved in commissioning anyone. What we don’t tend to think of when we hear “laying on of hands” is that it involves relationship and approval.

Our sending them away as our representatives may not seem real to us, but just think about what being seen with the wrong folks can do to a reputation. I’ve heard that Billy Graham would not be in a room alone with a woman. Others follow the same policy, or at least make sure the door is open so that anyone who wants to can see that nothing’s going on.

But the hard part is not sharing in the sins of others. What does it mean? It’s comparatively easy to say that being pure means not having sex with someone who is not our spouse. We might say that watching (or cheering on) someone committing a crime is sharing their sins. But what about watching two people who aren’t married having sex. Let’s not even take it to the level of hard-core porn. What about steamy novels. OK, so you skip the worst, but do you recommend them? Give them high ratings in your reviews?

How about social issues? Siding with either major political party is problematic at best, but do you speak out about the things your chosen party supports that Scripture teaches are wrong? Yes, we’re supposed to love the sinner, but are we sharing in their sin for their sake? Are we telling them their sins are not sins? That they don’t matter? Whose opinion matters most, theirs or God’s. I’m not trying to be nasty here - it’s something each of us has to face and deal with before God.