Study Jesus’ retelling of the widow’s mite.
Or how He says “if you are faithful in small things you will be faithful with big things”...
IOW, if you steal on a small level, you will be prone to steal on a big level, and the amount of your theft is in direct ratio to your place in life. I.e. the widow’s mite was all the money she had to live on, yet she gave it to God.
The widow’s gift, Jesus said, was in reality much more than the gifts of those who gave more monetarily but not sacrificially.
The issue of, say, fudging a tax return, is about how much you trust Jesus to be your real provider in life. If you don’t trust Him to ultimately be the one taking care of you, then you are more prone to cheat on taxes.
I.e. your cheating is in direct ratio to your lack of faith in Christ.
Sin is relative to the sinner in these types of cases. Though for the issue of rape, or sexual abuse, it appears that Hell is a place for rapists to be raped themselves. Forever. And ever.
“Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand” is a directive and dire warning.
Funny how you should say that. It reminded me of some wisdom I heard many years ago.
When I were a young man, I got a speeding ticket. In order to get the points taken off my license, I chose to go to a “driver improvement” course. In the course, the topic of road rage came up. We shared our feelings of anger as we experienced people cutting us off or otherwise doing bad things behind the wheel.
The instructor, a retired cop, gave us wise advice. “You get angry because you see that person getting away with his act. Don’t get angry. He likely feels empowered by what he did and will probably do it again. Eventually he’ll likely get caught by a cop (before anyone gets hurt hopefully), and guess what? His insurance will go up! You, on the other hand, will be a careful driver, and your insurance will be a lot lower than his.”
“So don’t get mad, just relax, and realize that his cockiness will eventually lead him to get stupid and he’ll do it right in front of a cop.”
