Luke 17:1-10

Christ Jesus said there will be sin and temptations to sin. It is impossible, He said, to live in this world without being confronted by sin.

Dr. Karl Menninger, a psychiatrist, wrote a book in the 1970s entitled “Whatever Became of Sin?” Forty years ago people were talking less about sin, and today people talk even less about sin.

Why do people not talk about sin? It could be that talking about it means acknowledging the existence of God and our accountability to Him. Man has within himself a sinful desire to be good enough to go to heaven. The prophet Jeremiah warned about this desire to rely on ourselves when he wrote, “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?”

Jesus went on to say to the disciples that it is a terrible thing to cause someone to sin. There is within us all the capacity to sin and we seek the Lord’s help in resisting the temptation to sin. We certainly do not want to be the catalyst that stirs someone else to sin against God.

Terrible judgment is coming to the man or woman who leads another person into sin. There are some people calling themselves Christians, who mislead sincere believers. They wear the outward label of a Christian, having built their lives on foundations of sand. They teach false doctrines, and it is better, Jesus said, for such a person to have a millstone tied around his neck and thrown into the sea. In other words, it is better for that person to have never been born.

In our relationships it is inevitable that we will be offended, so how are Christians to deal with this? Jesus said we should rebuke the offender by pointing out how he has sinned against God and you. The rebuke is to be done in Christian love and with prayer for the brother who committed the trespass.

If the brother repents of the trespass against you, Jesus said, forgive him. If he offends you many times a day and is sincerely sorrowful for what he has done, the Savior said he should be forgiven. How many times every day do we sin against our heavenly Father? We ought to pray for forgiveness and that the Lord will put in our hearts a spirit of forgiveness.

Christ’s followers said to Him, “Increase our faith.” While this might seem an unusual request after what Jesus said, we must understand that greater faith produces greater grace and we reflect the nature of Christ Jesus who gave His life for us. Greater faith results in greater usefulness .

He spoke a parable, saying if our faith is the size of a mustard seed we could tell a tree to uproot and re-plant itself in the sea. There is power in this world beyond our ability to comprehend, and it is all about the power of the Lord. He wants us to believe in Him.

Suppose, Jesus said, you have a servant plowing in the field or feeding your cattle. When he comes in from his work, does the master thank the servant for doing what he was commanded to do? It is the same for believers who do what is our duty. All of us eventually come to understand “We are unprofitable servants: we have done that which was our duty to do.”

Whatever we do for the Lord has no comparison with what He has done for us. We must focus our attention on what Christ Jesus did on the cross instead of thinking so much about ourselves.

Whatever became of sin? It is still around and in plentiful supply, but I will tell you what happened to sin. Jesus shed His precious blood and gave His life so that all who believe in Him should not perish in their sins.

All have sinned, the Scriptures tell us, but because of Jesus, sin no longer has power over “whosoever believeth in Him.” Thank God today for His precious Son.

Ed Wilcox

The Sunday school lesson is written by Ed Wilcox, pastor of Centerville Baptist Church. He can be reached at [email protected].