Loving Less, Part 4

Who had the greatest need in the room that evening? The prostitute humiliated by sin or the Pharisee who believed even his failures were worth something to God compared to prostitution? Simon the Pharisee had the greater problem!

While the woman received forgiveness, Simon discovered an intractable shortfall: He only loved God a little! In his determination to establish his own worth before God, he undermined his ability to love God greatly. Loving God a little, and looking for love in all the wrong places, are both significant failures.

Sin is falling short of Father’s ideal. While it has varying degrees of consequence, sin by failure and sin by humiliation both fall short of God’s standard.

No sin has value. There is no merit in the flesh.

There are sins—deeds of the flesh—that look bad and there are sins that look good. Both are sins and fall short of God’s standard. It is only by placing no value in the works of the flesh that our hearts are set free to love a great deal in response to the great deal of love demonstrated to us by our Father.

For the Believer it is not possible for there to be a failure greater than God's grace. If such a sin exists, then that sin is greater than God.

How tricky it is of Satan to tempt us to believe that something we do has the power to create a different perspective of us in God's mind. Our Father determined His view of us through Christ’s accomplishments on the cross!

Any standard other than this falls short of God’s grace and is by definition, sin. This is problematic, to be sure. But the greater sorrow is that this improper valuation of sin destines us to love Him less.