What I hear you "saying" is there is a difference between sin; one is either a practicing sinner or a commited sinner, or rather one who commits sin or one who practices. You are saying that the practicing sinner is worse than the one who commits? Is this correct?
I suppose the answer to this should be qouted, and any time I quote, I always believe in reading the whole chapter. ~ "Jesus answered them. Verily, verily, I say unto unto you, whosoever committeth sin is the servant of sin. And the servant abideth not in the house for ever but the son abideth forever. If the Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed." John chapter 8
When situations are happening to us that we do not like, we believe that its our fault, because we must have not listened, we must have sinned that God has turned his favour away from us.
This is not true, its by choice and free will, we are here to learn, for he said we would have a teacher. We are subject to all kinds of illnesses and troubles, like all men. Our souls will be troubled in this world, Jesus soul was. But there again we simply have to ask, believing...and knowing who we are asking and in whos name we ask... "And whatsoever ye shall ask in my name, that will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If ye shall ask anything in my name, I will do it." When we believe on Jesus, we believe on God who sent him to us as an atonement for our sins. He restored us to good condition. Asking the Lord for something is a learned response and behaviour. It is not a natural thing to do while we live in these bodies.
There is a process of elimiation ~ I must decrease so that he can encrease. We begin to see ourselves through the eyes of our Lord, and we see ourselves as pretty pathetic in that we are really nothing, this is the humble position of trust and love. Lord does not work in us with anything other than the fruits of the Spirit. We also come to understand that the flesh and in a nut shell, we see it as dead. Our spirits now free to abide in our bodies to reveal the true nature of our Lord, who himself was an example in the body without sin. "If ye abide in me, and my words abide inyou ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you" chapter 15 We are his disciples.
"And now I am no more in the world, but these are in the world, and I come to thee, Holy Father keep thourgh thine own name those whom thou hast given me, that they may be one, as we are. " ... "I pray not that thou shouldest take them out of the world, but that thou shouldest keep them from evil." Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth,"
"That they all may be one: as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us; that the world may believe that thou has sent me." Chapter 17 We have been remitted, or rather restored to a previous condition. Jesus was the second Adam, we have been rightfully restored. Do you believe?
"I am not yet ascended to my Father" Later down the passage, he speaks to Thomas and says "Reach hither thy finger, and behold my hands,; and reach hither thy hand, and thrust it into my side; and be not faithless, but believing" The prince of this world has nothing in Jesus, and we are in him, therefore he has nothing in us. Do you believe?
Jesus spoke these things not to offend. ch 16 vs 1 but rather so that we would remember. that the Holy Spirit of truth is come and will guide us into all truth, for he shall not speak of himself, but whatsoever he shall hear, that shall he speak.
We are in remission of our sins, we have received atonement, do you accept this remission or that sin you accept still lives in you? I believe, and have done for quite some time that I have been cleansed and set free. When he says we are set free, then we walk in that freedom and are accountable for our words and actions. We do not say that because of sin, but rather say because of Christ I am strong. if anyone should boast in saying we are good, there is only one that is good, namely Christ. and the message and the word preaches on.
We are called to stop loving our personal self, so that we begin loving others. We do not become vain, believing ourselves to be superior to the rest because of our spiritual gifts. Just as much as we do not compare ourselves with John, or Paul.
We learn to be last so we are first in him, we are of humble heart, simple and virtuous. We do not become suduced by false glories of the earth that only serve to deviate the spirit from the true path, or detain us amking us loose precious time for advancement.
A human being is not his matter or his riches, a human being is worth and exist only because of his spirit. We leave for those who are coming in the future the memory of our deeds as an example.
Jesus came to teach us love, not to satisfy our vain curiousity; but how few are able to love in his name. When ever we preform a good deed we say "I am honest, I am charitable, that is why I do this". If we attribute our good deeds to our human heart, we are denying our spirit, and the One who restored us with those virtues.
Jesus set the example by forgetting about himself. shall we continue to think on ourselves with regards to sin, or shall we also forget as he has done and move with him unto greater things that the world, in all its vain glory sees as weak. But we know better, we know that its in the love of christ that all things become strong. There is no sin in learning who we are in him.
In his love always ~ Kelly