Sin and Guilt

Many people, both inside and outside the church, seem to believe that not only is the moral code of the church restricting, but that it is the sacred duty of those who uphold that code to bash those who don't over the head with a stone copy of the Ten Commandments. There are two things I would like to address about this statement.
The first is that the moral code of the church IS restricting, but that the purpose of it is not because God wants us miserable. Sure, it would feel great to go out and have sex whenever you want and with whomever you want, but sex-based relationships are empty and can often end in pregnancies or STDs. It's not that the sex itself shouldn't be fun - sex was meant to be a whole lot of fun - it's that sex outside of its proper context leads to more problems than it's worth.

Think back to when you were a child and you wanted dessert, but not dinner. What did your parents tell you? If they were anything like my mom, you heard, "Finish your vegetables and then you can have a cookie." The cookie, in and of itself, was not a bad thing, nor something I was not meant to have. It was something that I had to wait for and accomplish something productive before I could have it. Left to my own judgment, I would have consumed a vast quantity of cookies and enjoyed them all...until I became obese, developed heart issues, and became diabetic.

Likewise, things that are restricted in the Bible are not restricted because God wants us to have no fun down here. It's because He loves us much like your parents loved you; He knows you want something, but there is a better way for you to live than to have it given to you any time you want it.

The better way is to live in love. It will be hard sometimes and something you don't want to do anymore than you wanted to eat your vegetables as a kid, but trusting that God knows what is best for you makes it easier to accept His rules for our lives.

The other point I'd like to address is guilt. Our parents had the right, power, and responsibility to make us do certain things. God certainly is more powerful than our parents, but he chooses to let us make our own choices in everything. Because of this, you will continue throughout your life to make choices that are opposite of what God wanted you to choose. That is perhaps the simplest definition of sin: choosing what you want over what God wants.

Here's a big secret: God already knows what you're going to choose. You're not surprising Him, you're not confusing Him, you're not even disappointing Him. He's infinitely patient with us. He'll correct us, just like any good parent would, but He won't condemn us, won't throw us away as worthless, and won't forsake us, no matter how many times we choose ourselves over Him.

In short, God doesn't use guilt. He may tell you that what you are doing is wrong, but it is always in the sense of trying to help you, rather than calling you a horrible person.

It is unfortunate that there are people (both inside and outside the church) who condemn people. When they do, they commit the sin of pride and so are sinners themselves. It is not anyone's place to judge another person's heart; God alone sees that. More importantly, God alone has the right to judge. This means that if you are judging now, stop and realize that you are trying to play God. If you are afraid of being judged by others, realize that they have no right to judge you and are wrong themselves for trying; also, you should be receiving your affirmation from God and not from other people. If God says you are worthy of love, who is anyone else to disagree?