The Sinful Christian

When Christians turn to Jesus, many of them want to please God in their day-to-day life. But their bright hopes are often quickly challenged when sometimes, even often, they speak and behave in ways that are not honoring to God. They find that turning away from these behaviors is not as easy as they thought - there always seems to be some 'thorn in the flesh' that won't go away, that they struggle to turn away from.

Christians respond to their ongoing shortcomings in a number of ways. Some turn to divine law - like the Ten Commandments - to spur them on to a more godly life. Others celebrate their freedom of deliverance in Jesus, assured that their missing of the mark is pardoned. Others look to heightened experiences of the presence of God or of empowerment and spiritual gifts. Some promote seeking an experience of union with the Messiah in which their sin is transcended and does not matter any more. But for some, their persistent failings lead them to become depressed, or to be concerned and fearful about whether they really are Christians or not.

This study 'drills down' into Scripture to discover what Jesus and his Apostles taught about Christians failing and missing the mark in the Christian life; about whether such failures should be expected; and about how Christians deal with them when they do occur. It looks at how Christian leaders and members of a fellowship are taught to relate to a fellow Christian whose behavior is causing concern and how Christians are taught to respond to their own failures.