“…the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe.” Romans 3:22

In business, we are trained to measure all important outcomes. In fact, the old adage is if it is not being measured, then it isn’t being managed. By measuring performance, we gather the necessary feedback to determine what changes or adjustments are necessary to improve the outcome. Yet aren’t there objectives that are more difficult to measure than others?

Take for example one of life’s undesirable outcomes: sin. The Bible defines sin in several different ways. John writes that sin is lawlessness (I Jn. 3:4). James writes that “whoever knows the right thing to do and fails to do it, for him it is sin”( James 4:17). Paul in addition writes that whatever is not done in faith is sin (Romans 14:23). How does one measure the outcome of faith? Yes we can probably keep a journal log listing all behavior during the day and then record next to each on a scale of 1 to 5 (5 is best) how faithful were we in that action. But would you give yourself a passing grade if you only scored a 2 out of 5? Would anything less than a 5 be labeled a sin?

How many of us want more faith? Yet didn’t Jesus say that if we had only “a very little amount of faith” we could accomplish great things (Luke 17:5-7)?

Don’t we typically measure sin by the outcome? If a person’s behavior doesn’t measure up to what “is Biblical” then we categorize it as sin. Yet Jesus came along and said that sin is even deeper than that; that sin is a matter of attitude and emotional heart. That we don’t have to follow through with behavioral response, but just the inner thought of doing or not doing something can be classified as sin.

Am I being hard on managing sin? Or are we just looking at the wrong side of the picture? Maybe instead of focusing on measuring sin which can become quite depressing, we need to focus on the opposite side. Maybe we need to focus on righteousness. Not our righteousness, but the Incarnate God’s righteousness. Maybe if we allowed more of His righteousness to abide in our life, we wouldn’t even have to write about sin.

For isn’t sin simply the absence of God’s perfect love? Isn’t sin simply the absence of trust in our Triune God? Isn’t lawlessness the absence of failing to mutually yield to the King of Kings in our lives? Isn’t God’s grace the answer to sin? Isn’t His divine love, faithfulness, and influence immeasurable? Instead of trying to manage the sins in our world, maybe we need to simply abide in the one who is measureless and secure in His love, faith, and obedience. Maybe there are some goals that don’t need to be measured, but simply covered with God’s grace. What do you think?

We are rooting for you!

Yours in Christ,

Dr. Mike

Executive Chair, Consultant, Encourager
Marketplace Bible Institute
& Resource Center, Inc
Author of e-Books:
* Great Business Emulates a Good God
* Be Radical…Follow Christ!
* Simply The Messenger
* Unequally Married

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