We in the Church have a tendency to rate sins like they rate events at the Olympics. We’d probably rate something like adultery as a 9.5. Embezzling funds from the church, that’s likely a perfect 10.
But, here’s the deal. Galatians chapter 5 lists out what Paul called the “acts of the sinful nature.” And that list contains things like “sexual immorality,” “idolatry,” and “witchcraft.” Those are all things we would expect to be there. Each of those is going to rank pretty high on our Olympic scale for rating sins, right?
But, also included in that list are things like “discord,” “dissensions,” and “factions.” See, these things – from our usual perspective – are probably only about a 2 or 3. They just don’t seem all that bad.
What we don’t seem to understand is that those things are just as heinous to the Lord as the others.
But God doesn’t use our sin rating system. To Him, sin is sin. James 2:10 tells us that whoever keeps the whole law but stumbles at just one point, he’s guilty of breaking all of it.
Now, even though from God’s perspective all sin is the same, the effects that sin has in people’s lives can vary. And the problem with disunity is that the effects can be subtle and often go unnoticed.
But it’s still sin and it’s still wrong.
Maybe we need to truly look at this issue from God’s perspective. Instead of discord, dissensions and factions, let’s consider how we can encourage, build up and strengthen the people and leadership in our churches.
To Make You Think 