Every day I hear people say; “I’m a good person, God isn’t going to send me to hell because I don’t keep ALL of the commandments.” Or “I keep most of the commandants, it’s not like I am breaking the big ones.” And the list goes on and on with the way of thinking that it’s ok to sin as long as we aren’t doing really bad things, and were good people.

First of all, there are few people who are trying to follow Jesus Christ that their motive is to offend God, and deliberately sin to separate themselves from Him. I’m not talking about that type of mindset.

There are enticements to commit sin; addiction, temporary pleasures, social pressures, etc., so what I’m talking about are people who sin by way of habit and temptation, but just don’t see the significance of stopping, thinking it’s ok, because God doesn’t expect them to be perfect. This is for those who want to follow Christ but because no one has really ever made the doctrines of Christ clear to them, they have gone on living below their full potential.

This philosophy that any sin is ok because “God doesn’t expect me to be perfect” is directly contrary to the teachings of Christ.

Before we go any further we have to establish our roots in the ground if we are really going to solve this problem. I’ll quote a few scriptures, then expound upon them.

  • Jesus Christ said “Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect” (Matthew 5:48).
  • And later He told His disciples “If ye love me, keep my commandments” (John 14:15).

Ok, so let’s go from there. Now I am fully aware that no one can actually be perfect as Heavenly Father is perfect. We cannot keep every commandment. It is impossible, which is why we cannot be justified by the law. But living worthily isn’t at all about whether or not we can keep every commandment.  It is the higher law, whether or not we TRY to. It’s about attitude. It’s about being humble and submitting to the will of the Father. Sin is an offense to God. He is perfectly clean, and for this reason, when we sin, it separates us from His holy presence.

When we sin we in essence say in our hearts: “God, I know this offends you, but I want it, so in this moment of weakness, my will is more important than yours.”

But that is inevitable. This happens to us daily. God is still offended, but He forgives for this imperfect behavior if we repent. But the attitude is something we can control much more easily, which will reduce the amount of sin that we commit and offend Him. Changing our attitude is what real repentance is.

So having the attitude that it’s ok to sin is in essence saying: “God, I know exactly what I’m doing offends you, and I can change if I want to, but it’s harder than I’m willing to try, so I chose to openly offend you over and over and over again because my will is more important than yours.”

Re-read the other statement and compare which one is worse.

Having the attitude that offending God is ok, separates us from Him infinitely more so than actually offending him!

Ok, if that isn’t enough, let’s go from this angle. “I’m not that bad! I don’t break the BIG commandments! Yes my attitude isn’t perfect, but it’s not like I’m hurting people!”

Well, let’s see if that’s true. What is the BIGGEST commandment? Luckily this question was asked to the Savior and recorded in Matthew.

“Master, which is the great commandment in the law?

“Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind.

“This is the first and great commandment” (Matthew 22:36-38).

Alright, so when we hold on to any sin, whether we think it’s big or little, are we keeping the greatest commandment to love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, when we already learned Jesus Christ said himself “If ye love me, keep my commandments?” No way. The converse of that is, when we break His commandments, we show our lack of love for Him. When we hold on to any sin, we are in direct opposition with the BIGGEST commandment in the law. So again, the greatest error is thinking that ANY sin is ok. ALL sin is an offense to God. So are you not hurting anyone? Well God is the greatest “Anyone” I know of, and we hurt Him when we sin.

It is no wonder to me that King Benjamin exhorted the people to be humble by declaring “The natural man is an enemy to God” (Mosiah 3:19).

No matter what the commandment is, if it’s the Word of Wisdom, the law of chastity, keeping the Sabbath Day holy, or down to; did I read the scriptures and pray today, it doesn’t matter, if we want to hold on to any form of sin, therein lies one of the the greatest deceits Satan ever conjured up, that that attitude is ok.

Christ paid the price for our sins, we are indebted unto Him, and we can never pay our debt. We are unprofitable servants, all we can do is try and keep the debt from getting bigger. Christ asks but very little. “If ye love me, keep my commandments.” So when we decide that is too hard to try, we again say something to this effect: “Christ, I know I am in complete debt to you, and you love me so much you paid the ultimate price for me, even though I don’t deserve it, but I DO NOT CARE ENOUGH TO DO WHAT YOU ASK OF ME!”

All He wants us to do is TRY our best to keep ALL of HIS commandants. We already stated that it is impossible to keep all of them. That’s why the operative word here is “try.” We cannot fail in try, unless we openly rebel against His commandments.

We all must have the attitude of Nephi, and this is the only attitude that can bring us back to Him who loves us so:

“…I will go and do the things which the Lord hath commanded, for I know that the Lord giveth no commandments unto the children of men, save he shall prepare a way for them that they may accomplish the thing which he commandeth them” (1 Nephi 3:7; emphasis added).

that takes humility, and patience, a lot of it. But if we try our best, we have a promise that He will abide in us, He will comfort us, and carry us. “Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows…he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed” (Isaiah 53:4-5). There is a way, it can be done. Millions who have accepted the restored gospel are “going and doing” at this moment, and I testify that they are happy doing it.

“Wickedness never was happiness” (Alma 41:10). How very true. There is a peace of mind that comes to those who know that when that day comes that they are brought before the judgement seat of God, that they can hold their heads up high and say; “I did all that I could do.” That is true happiness.