Such Great Forgiveness

I tell you, her sins—and they are many—have been forgiven, so she has shown me much love. but a person who is forgiven little shows only little love. (Luke 7:47, NLT)

When we learn of or hear of something that is considered to be “egregious” we understand it to mean something that is worst than horrible. Over the top. Terrible and awful. An official definition of egregious is, “outstandingly bad, shocking.” To learn what egregious means a lot of things may come to mind quickly. Sometimes we consider and categorize the things that people/others do as egregious and we may even rank sin in that way. Some sins being the very worst, shockingly bad, and others not so bad; little sins that don’t really count at all. We might be shocked to learn that for God all our sin is egregious: outstandingly bad, shocking. Shocked to learn he does not rank our sin as little, not so bad, big or small. Sin is just sin and all of it is offensive to God.

Even though we are not likely to forgive or overlook egregious behavior God does. Every time he forgives our or any sin, he is forgiving something we have done that is egregious. We might be more than a little humbled to consider that even our tiniest, most unnoticeable, un-notable sin still falls into that category. When God makes us aware of the way he sees and considers sin, it’s not to make us feel worse, badly, or guilty, but so that we will live and love like people who have been forgiven much. Let’s Pray,

Thank you for this reminder about the terribleness of sin and that all sin, no matter how we rank it, is considered an egregious act to you God. may we live humbly and always remember to live as people who have been forgiven much. Amen

Reflective Questions for soul-Tending:

How does viewing all sin as an egregious act impact you or make you think differently about your own sin?

How will you incorporate today’s message into your plan of soul-care?