“He said to them, ‘But who do you say that I am?’ Simon Peter replied, ‘You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.’ And Jesus answered him, ‘Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah! For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven.’” (Matthew 16:15-17)
In our nation today, the greatest sins as proclaimed by the media and the mob are deemed to be racism and intolerance. Nothing else is considered as wicked or evil except perhaps pedophilia, although these days, it seems that we are even called to tolerate that. We are urged by the media to tolerate any sexual lifestyle that an individual can claim as their own. Indeed, we are told that whatever an individual chooses as his or her lifestyle is acceptable and cannot be wrong. Feelings determine what actions are valid and so what one chooses to do or be is beyond reproach. Those who do not agree are condemned and vilified.
Not so in the Kingdom of God. The media and the mob are focusing our eyes on specific sins and yes, racism is sinful in any form. But intolerance is not sinful if it does not harm or demean people. After all, the Lord God Almighty is intolerant of all sin, all immorality as He defines it. He is intolerant of idolatry, of all religions, of any faith that does not proclaim Jesus as Lord as well as the idolatry that exalts the individual, that exalts choice, that exalts self-centeredness.
And yet Jesus loves the sinner and calls him and her to repentance and faith. According to the Word of God, the only sin that is truly worthy of God’s eternal condemnation is rejection of Jesus as the only way to heaven. The only question that is worth answering, the only one that truly matters is: What do you think of Jesus? How one answers that question determines the course of one’s life in this world as well as in eternity.
Why is the answer one gives to this question so important? As we look at the answer that the apostle Peter give to Jesus when the Lord asked him we discover the answer. Jesus is, as Peter attests, the Messiah and the Son of God, a term which means Jesus is equal to God the Father Almighty. So, Peter, whether he knew it or not, was acknowledging that Jesus was (and is) God in the flesh come to redeem all humans from sin and death.
Since Jesus is Almighty God, we really ought to pay attention to what He says and follow Him with every ounce of our energy and passion. Then we can overcome all the other sins by His strength and grace. Then we can live lives that honor and exalt Him.