Mitigating Sin, The Underlying Cause of America’s Divisions & Dysfunctions

Each time I read the news, interact with people and their views, or follow politics, my soul gets exceedingly vexed and my heart breaks.  My heart aches for my people, our country, our churches, our schools, and most importantly, our future. I’m reminded of a similar occasion during Jesus’ time found in Matt 9:35-37.  And Jesus went throughout all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom and healing every disease and every affliction. 36  When he saw the crowds, he had compassion for them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd.  This passage describes the condition of our world. We have all kinds of diseases (metaphorically speaking) and afflictions operating within our society that is making our society tremendously sick.  We are a country divided but not for the many reasons that you may think and that we read about. We are a country laden with all types of dysfunctions because no one can really articulate what is normal.  We have all kinds of politicians, celebrities, social workers, educators, etc., pontificating about these problems and how to solve them.  All their suggestions and proposed solutions only contributes to more division and dysfunction.  The main problem which fuels the divisions and dysfunctions, is that our society, our country, as well as individuals, are trying to mitigate the effects of sin by the way we function in our society.  To mitigate something means to make less severe, serious, or painful.  Mitigation is the action we take to reduce the severity, seriousness, or painfulness of something.    All the divisions and dysfunctions we’re experiencing are due to our world trying to lessen the effects of sin in our lives. Allow me the explain.

God has a standard by which we should live.  Sin is anything we do that does not attain God’s standard or deviates from it.  It does not matter the circumstance or nature of the issues.  It does not matter what your religion may be or the absence thereof.  The God of the universe and Creator of the whole world set a standard for what we should be and how we should function.   The more our society tries to change God’s standard and make it work, the more division and dysfunction we experience.   For example, in Genesis 1:27 we read these words.  So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.  Here God set the standard for how humans are to be.  What is one issue that keeps us divided in our society?  The animosity between those who embrace God’s standard with regards to men functioning as men and women as women and those who do not.  The divisiveness gets wider on this issue because those who try to mitigate for people who choose not to live and function the way God made them clash with those who desire to hold tightly to the standard God set for male and female.   Another example is also found in Genesis 2. We read in verses16-17,  And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, "You may surely eat of every tree of the garden, 17 but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die."  The Lord established the basis for civilization by giving men responsibility.  Next, we read these words. Then the Lord God said, "It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him a helper fit for him."  God added to the man a helper suitable for him to help him accomplish God’s purposes.  In our present-day feminist movement, men are being displaced, demonized, and headed towards total eradication from the family unit.  Some years ago, I read a staggering statistic from the department of justice that I am sure still holds true today.  The statistic states that almost seventy-percent of all heinous crimes committed, are committed by men who come from fatherless homes.  If this is still true, then one main reason for much of the violence we see today is that we’ve left God’s original design for the family unit.  All the things we’re trying to do for families through government, can mostly be rectified just by simply returning to God’s design for the family.  Today we’re divided on whether two people of the same sex should be married.  We’re passing legislation trying to force people to accept what is not God’s standard.  Making same sex marriage legal is society’s way of trying to mitigate something that is not God’s standard.  Our society is doing the exact same thing that took place in the Garden of Eden at the beginning of time.  In Genesis chapter 3:4 we read these words.   “But the serpent said to the woman, "You will not surely die.”  The serpent got Eve to change the standard that God set.  We are now a country divided.

I’ve only thrown out a smidgen of things that we are struggling with in our society. I challenge you to take a look at any point of division or dysfunction in our world.  I guarantee that we are divided or in dysfunction because our efforts are given to trying to “redo” what God has set up or “make right” what God has said id wrong.  God sets the standard for how we should live and how we should function in this life and with each other.  Our society, in its pride, is doing its best to assert its will and ideas over God’s standard.  Our society doesn’t necessarily have to accept Jesus but if it will move back to God’s standards for who we are and how we should live, we can still change our country.  The world is getting professing Christians to help them remove God’s standard and then become divided on how to mitigate the problem created by removing the standard.  If we really and truly want to see our country healed and the dysfunctions minimized, we must quit trying to mitigate our sins by confessing them, repenting and returning to God’s standard for how we function in this life and relate to one another.  

 Pastor Lawrence Robinson