THE RESPECTABLE SINS IN THE PEWS

There was a day when the church feared sin. Now the church fears looking strange. Somewhere between Corinth and Laodicea, we learned to baptize carnality as long as it stayed quiet, clean, and socially acceptable. The devil does not mind if you sit in a Baptist church. He minds if you live a holy life. So he has outfitted a new line of sins that wear suits, sing hymns, and bow their heads during prayer.

The average Christian would never dream of robbing a bank or running a meth lab, yet many have gladly opened a spiritual gift shop for sins that God has thundered against. We call them harmless. God calls them wicked.

The Bible never submitted to cultural approval ratings. When the Holy Ghost wrote the Scriptures, He did not send them through a public relations committee. He just told the truth and expected men to blush. It is high time God’s people started blushing again.

1. THE SIN OF DISTRACTION

Here in America, we are not living in an age of persecution. We are living in the age of preoccupation. The devil does not need to burn your Bible as long as he can keep you from opening it. He does not need to chase you out of the prayer closet as long as he can convince you that you are too busy to enter it.

Luke 10:40, “But Martha was cumbered about much serving, and came to him, and said, Lord, dost thou not care that my sister hath left me to serve alone? Bid her therefore that she help me.” Martha was not in a bar. Martha was not in a casino. Martha was in the kitchen making dinner for Jesus and still missed Jesus. Distraction is respectable because it hides inside responsibility.

2. THE SIN OF COMFORT

We have built an entire generation of disciples who believe the will of God is always within five degrees of personal comfort. Anything that requires sacrifice feels extreme. Anything that demands obedience feels rigid. Anything that involves suffering feels unnecessary.

Second Timothy 2:3, “Thou therefore endure hardness, as a good soldier of Jesus Christ.” Soldiers do not ask if the trenches have heated seats or soft lighting. Jesus Christ is not recruiting customers. He is recruiting soldiers.

3. THE SIN OF FEARFUL SILENCE

Evangelism has become awkward instead of urgent. We are more afraid of offending a sinner than we are of watching a sinner go to Hell. Hell is full of men who lived within five minutes of a soul winner who was too nervous to share the Gospel. Heaven will reveal how many missed opportunities were lost because Christians treated the Great Commission like an optional hobby.

Mark 8:38, “Whosoever therefore shall be ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, of him also shall the Son of man be ashamed, when he cometh in the glory of his Father with the holy angels.”

Silence is the camouflage of cowardice. It is celebrated by culture and condemned by Christ.

4. THE SIN OF BITTERNESS

Bitterness is the only sin that brags about how hurt it is. It spreads without apology and grows without permission. It has divided friendships, split churches, wrecked marriages, and turned sweet saints into sour Pharisees. We pity ourselves instead of repenting. We nurse grudges instead of crucifying them.

Hebrews 12:15, “Looking diligently lest any man fail of the grace of God lest any root of bitterness springing up trouble you and thereby many be defiled.”

Bitterness may start in one heart, but it never stays there. It defiles many.

5. THE SIN OF PRIDE

Pride has done more damage in churches than whiskey ever did. Whiskey ruins bodies. Pride ruins revivals. It keeps churches from getting right, keeps saints from serving, and keeps sinners from repenting.

Proverbs 16:18, “Pride goeth before destruction and an haughty spirit before a fall.”

James 4:6, “But he giveth more grace. Wherefore he saith God resisteth the proud, but giveth grace unto the humble.”

Every proud Christian in America is wrestling with Almighty God and still thinks they are doing well because nobody can see the scoreboard.

6. THE SIN OF GOSSIP

Gossip is the devil’s radio station, and half the church keeps it playing between Sunday School and morning worship. Drunks destroy their own lives. Gossipers destroy everyone else’s. It quietly murders reputations, friendships, and unity.

Proverbs 16:28, “A froward man soweth strife and a whisperer separateth chief friends.”

Romans 1:29, “Being filled with all unrighteousness, fornication, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness full of envy murder debate deceit malignity whisperers.”

When God groups gossip next to murder, the church ought not treat it as a prayer request.

7. THE SIN OF COMPARISON 

Comparison is one of the most respectable sins in modern Christianity. It not only poisons pulpits. It poisons marriages, parenting, friendships, and entire churches. Social media has turned comparison into a full-time obsession. We scroll through the highlight reels of other people’s lives and then measure our ordinary obedience against their curated performances.

Mothers compare homes. Fathers compare incomes. Teenagers compare appearances. Pastors compare ministries. Churches compare attendance. Christians compare blessings. Nobody wins except the devil.

Second Corinthians 10:12, “For we dare not make ourselves of the number or compare ourselves with some that commend themselves but they measuring themselves by themselves and comparing themselves among themselves are not wise.”

Comparison steals gratitude from the heart and replaces it with envy. It steals peace from marriage and replaces it with pressure. It steals joy from service and replaces it with performance. You cannot glorify Christ while competing with His other servants. You cannot be content with God’s will for you while you covet God’s will for someone else.

8. THE SIN OF SELF-PITY

Self-pity is bitterness wearing a victim badge. It is the only sin that demands sympathy while producing rebellion. Jonah sulked over the death of a plant more than the salvation of a city.

Jonah 4:9, “And God said to Jonah, Doest thou well to be angry for the gourd? And he said, I do well to be angry, even unto death.”

 Jonah would rather pout than surrender.

Self-pity convinces Christians that obedience is unnecessary because life is unfair. It excuses prayerlessness, validates apathy, and justifies disobedience. You cannot carry a cross while carrying a grudge against God.

9. THE SIN OF PRAYERLESSNESS

There was a time when Baptists believed that prayer brought the power of God into the affairs of men. Today, prayer is often treated as a sentimental footnote before food and meetings. We speak of prayer with reverence, yet we practice it with neglect.

First Samuel 12:23 “God forbid that I should sin against the Lord in ceasing to pray for you.”

Samuel did not call prayerlessness inconvenient. He called it sin.

Prayerlessness is respectable because no one sees it. Nobody asks how much we have prayed this week. Nobody rebukes our lack of intercession. Believers can labor, serve, and minister while quietly neglecting the one work through which God accomplishes what flesh never can. Only eternity will reveal the victories won and the mercies granted through secret prayer.

10. THE SIN OF UNBELIEF

Unbelief does not always sound like atheism. Most of the time, it sounds like balance, caution, and wisdom. We pray without expectation, attempt without vision, and plan ministries that require no miracle.

Hebrews 3:12, “Take heed, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief.”

God does not call unbelief practical. He calls it evil.

Unbelief kills revival faster than immorality. Immorality breaks God’s law. Unbelief insults God’s character. It declares that God cannot do what God has always done.

11. THE SIN OF LAZINESS

Sloth is not always a couch with potato chips. Sometimes it is a Bible with no notes, a soul winner with no Gospel conversations, and a disciple with no growth. We have perfected the art of being busy without being obedient.

Romans 12:11, “Not slothful in business, fervent in spirit, serving the Lord.”

The church has plenty of members. It needs laborers.

Laziness is respectable because it hides behind excuses. “I would, but I am tired.” “I would, but I am overwhelmed.” “I would, but I am not gifted.” Every excuse sounds reasonable until the Judgment Seat.

12. THE SIN OF SPIRITUAL BABYHOOD

The modern church refuses to grow up. We baby Christians until they are old enough to draw Social Security. We offer milk to men who should be teaching meat. We have mastered the art of ministry that produces decisions without producing disciples.

Hebrews 5:12, “For when for the time ye ought to be teachers, ye have need that one teach you again.”

“Ought” is Heaven’s indictment on spiritual immaturity.

A church cannot storm the gates of Hell with a nursery full of spiritual infants.

Respectable sins do not break marriages; they erode them. They do not destroy churches overnight; they drain them slowly. They do not embarrass the community; they embarrass Heaven. They do not stop Christianity from existing; they stop Christianity from prevailing.

The reason revival tarries is not because the bar is open. It is because the altar is empty.

The cure is not a conference but a confession. Not a strategy but a surrender. Not a program but repentance.

First John 1:9, “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”

When respectable sins become repentable sins, God may visit His church again.

Until then, we will have services without power, sermons without conviction, and Christians without victory.

May the Lord disturb us until holiness becomes normal again and sin becomes shocking again.