Many sins today are being diagnosed as a “sickness” rather than calling a sin – sin. For example, the Bible calls someone who steals a “thief” but a secularist may call that person a “kleptomaniac,” implying that they cannot help it!!! Wow, how far we have fallen in our culture that we are excusing criminal behavior as a “sickness.”
When we “disease” sin by calling it “sickness,” we are alleviating the responsibility of the person who committed the sin. When we do that, we are also alleviating that person’s real need for forgiveness. Furthermore, we are alleviating that person’s real need for a Savior from their sins.
You can see how difficult it is to share the Gospel with a “kleptomaniac”!!! A “thief” needs the “good news” and the love of Christ to forgive him. A “kleptomaniac” does not need a Savior or forgiveness or anything like that because it is supposedly NOT his fault that he steals!
For this reason, we, biblical counselors at TIL, call sin sin. We use biblical language to “diagnose” the problem. Adulterers are not having an “affair” and foolish rebels are not given the label of “oppositional defiance disorder.” The reason is simple: sinners need forgiveness both from God and often from those they have sinned against. What a gift “forgiveness” is to someone who has transgressed God’s law!
Psalm 85:6: “For you, O Lord, are good and forgiving, abounding in steadfast love to all who call upon you.”
Psychological labels CAN be cruel when they excuse someone’s sinful thinking and behaving as a “sickness” rather than as sin. In the world’s system, there is no need for sin because there is no sovereign God, but those of us in Christ know better. God holds us accountable for our sins and we will answer to Him one day soon.
When that day of judgment comes and you stand before Almighty God, will you be trusting in the forgiveness of Christ OR in your psychological label that supposedly excuses your sinful behavior?
I think you can see why our ministry at Truth in Love is so important to the body of Christ and to reach unbelievers with this life-saving message of the forgiveness of sins through the Lord Jesus Christ!!!
Please pray for us and those that we are privileged to serve – that we’d all see clearly our sins and those of others, not to condemn, but to encourage repentance! For an excellent book on this subject, go to www.focuspublishing.com and order the book: Deceptive Diagnosis by David Tyler and Kurt Grady.
-Mark (thankful to Christ for revealing my sin to me, calling it SIN, and then forgiving me of all my sins: past, present, and future!)