Rating Sin in the House

It seems as Christians, we get into the habit of rating sinful behavior among the brethren. We may not say it outloud or think about it much, but I believe we do. We are quick to point our fingers at someone who abuses alcohol or drugs. We pray for them to be able to overcome this bondage with the help of Christ. Some are even quick to make the statment that a person that stuggles with this kind of addiction, must not be a "real" Christian because if they were the Lord would surely have given them victory over that sin. After all they are placing that alcohol or that drug before the Lord. It is an idolatry of sorts. This sort of scenerio could be played again regarding smoking or pornography. These are the "bad" sins. If one is to dare mention that overeating is in the same category as these sins, they risk being scoffed at. After all church activities are centered around food. All of our meetings, Bible studies and social activities are always partnered with food. "Who is bringing snack this week?" "Please bring a loaf of sandwiches and a pan of squares" "Next week is the pot luck!!". These are not bad things of course. We need to eat food and we certainly do that very well. We must remember that gluttony is also a sin along with alcoholism, drug addiction, pornography, smoking, and yes, computer addiction. You don't have to be overweight to practice gluttony and you don't have to be a hermit to practice computer addiction but anything that takes the place of Jesus Christ as center in our lives is idolatry and it is wrong. No one or no thing should be in that place of honor.
As Christians we know that we have Christ that fills that Christ shaped empty space in our heart. But sometimes we choose to place other things in that space and sometimes that is an escape. If it becomes too frequent of a practice the Lord will begin to shake up our lives to let us know He is being ignored. Our God is a jealous god and deserves and desires first place in our lives.
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