Why do so many people think that sin is black and white – like it’s always wrong to lie, always wrong to steal, always wrong to have an abortion…

How many lies do you tell in a day? Shop assistant asks: “How are you?” You reply: “Good thanks” but you’re really thinking something completely different – like maybe you’re running late and wish he/she would hurry the hell up, but what business is it of theirs right?

Would you seriously tell a starving child not to steal? Would you tell them that it would be more righteous for them to starve to death than to find themselves some food?

And on the issue of abortion, have you ever been faced with the situation where the baby in your womb or your partner’s womb was literally killing the mother because the baby was growing in your/her fallopian tube??? Or what if there was something else wrong with you or the baby and you were advised to abort? Can it really be as simply as: abortion is always wrong under every circumstance? I am not pro-choice nor am I anti-abortion. I am pro-adoption and I would love to have children someday. But far be it from me to judge someone for having an abortion when I have never been in their situation.

Thinking that we have the right judge other people’s so-called sin and make broad sweeping generalisations about what is right and what is wrong, only isolates people and results in an “us and them” mentality. I don’t want to stand against other people’s so-called sin and pass laws that force people to live according to my concept of right and wrong. I want to follow the example of God who (according to Romans 5) only introduced the law so that GRACE WOULD ABOUND ALL THE MORE.

The law kills, but the spirit gives life.
We are not under law, but under GRACE.