Dealing radically with sin

How radically should we deal with sin?  Does it differ from person to person?  Is it about tolerances?  Is it about what 'my problem' is or about what someone elses 'problem' is?  Are certain mediums more sinful than others?  Is there a danger that in radically dealing with sin we isolate ourselves from culture and being able to engage with those around us?

"If your right eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it away.  For it is better that you lose one of your members than that your whole body be thrown into hell.  And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away.  For it is better that you  lose one of your members than that your whole body go into hell."  Matthew 5:29-30

Jesus is radical about sin and when you read that passage carefully there are no *'s or other marks directing you to a foot note where Jesus adds the small print of 'except if it would impinge upon your cultural relevance'.  Jesus is just radical about sin - get rid of it, cut it out, tear it out, throw it away!  You can't get more radical than that.

So why do we struggle so much to do that?  Why do we find ourselves arguing what is ok for me might not be for someone else, Jesus doesn't seem to make allowances for tolerances.  And I don't think the tolerances argument washes anyway you can build up tolerance levels of all sorts of harmful things, it is the same to blasphemy or pornography or whatever, what is happening as you become tolerant of something is that your heart becomes calloused.

Another common argument is that the medium matters, so books are not viewed as being as sinful as films or material over the internet.  Books are designed to create images in our heads to create emotive responses to the words you are reading, that is no different than a film or internet sight which simply provides you with someelses take on those words.  Yet often we read things we would never watch.  With all of them Jesus call is cut it out, tear it out, throw it away.

Sin is sin.  It maybe couched in terms of romantic fiction, or thriller, or Rom Com, or in the latest video game release.  But we need to call sin sin and rediscover the horror of sin so that we see why it is that Jesus is so stark in his warning, why there is no small print and no shades of grey.  Why do we want there to be?  Because sin is attractive, it is tempting - that is the point after all.  But it is deadly and we ought to treat it as such, to label something as sin is to designate it as harmful as if it carried the warning symbol for radioactive waste, we wouldn't play with that because of the consequences.  God is not a cosmic killjoy, he is our loving heavenly father who has seen firsthand the damage, destruction, decay and desecration sin causes.  It is love that leads him to say rip it out, tear it out, throw it away.