You Can Sin by Going to Church

He had every chance to leave us a complicated list.

Jesus had just walked out of a grave and had the full attention of everyone. Whatever He said next people would build their lives around. These were His final words, the ones that people would remember.

He said, "Go, and make disciples."

Two actions: Go and Make. Every Christian alive can recite them. And that is what should bother us. We know it.

So, let's get right to the hard thing.

You can sin by going to church.

Not because there is anything wrong with church, or even going to church. Because for many of us it has quietly become the most holy way to avoid the one thing Jesus told us to do. We are consistent, we volunteer, we sing, we take notes. Sometimes we feel a little something, maybe a little convicted, almost convinced to do something different.

Then we walk to the car and the only thought on our mind is: "Where are we going to eat?"

The moment passes, the feeling passes, the conviction passes. And it's back to business as usual. And all the while the barista you see every morning has no idea Jesus walks with you. The waitress at the restaurant, the one you get frustrated with because she forgot your refill, is quietly wondering how she will make rent that month. The person two cubicles over from you at work, the one you said a silent prayer for, still faces the horrible diagnosis the doctor just gave them. And they sit there, with no hope. But it's ok, you whispered, "Lord help them," as you passed by their desk.

And the assignments you're being handed get skipped day after day, defended because you did your duty. You went to church. You sang the songs. You taught a class. You greeted the new family.

This is what nobody ever flinches at, which is why we need to look directly at it. Question someone's conference habit, and they'll shrug. Question their church attendance and they reach for Hebrews. We don't forsake the assembling together, we just forsake the command from Jesus.

Here's the mechanism, because it isn't only church.

You can take the one command Jesus left and quietly replace it with a hundred things he didn't. And each of them is dressed to look like obedience. And none of them are wrong or bad. That's the trick. The replacement doesn't look like sin. It looks like devotion.

You argue about nephilim and call it being devoted to the Word. You chase the next prophetic seminar or word and call it hunger. You wait for revival to show up and call it seeking God. You attend faithfully for thirty years and call it a life of faith.

And it all feels holy.

But that's the problem. If it felt or looked like distraction it would be easy to drop. But this wears the costume of the thing it's replacing. And all the while the various people in your path every day are unaffected by the Christ you say lives within you.

Some might hear this and say, "then I guess I don't need to go to church." That would be folly in the other direction. Yes, church is important. Yes, studying God's word is important. Yes, praying for people is important.

But none of the holy-looking activity is the command. All of it postpones the command. And the better it looks, the longer we can get away with it.

James wrote it plainly: "Therefore, to him who knows to do good and does not do it, to him it is sin" (James 4:17).

Not weakness. Not a season. Not still growing. Sin.

The whole verse hinges on knowing. You can't claim ignorance. You learned the Great Commission in a children's church classroom. You've heard it preached every ‘Missions Sunday’. Every one of us can finish the sentence before the pastor does.

So, the busyness isn't a lack of knowledge. We aren't confused about the assignment. We've known the command all along, and then put something easier in its place. And the something else feels spiritual, it feels holy, and that's why it works. That substitution is the sin. Not the building. Not the worship.

The choice to do the holy-looking thing instead of the commanded thing. And then saying they are the same. They are both important but the easier thing doesn't excuse the harder thing.

We aren’t too busy to do do what Jesus said to do. We’re busy instead of doing it.

There's a story in the Bible of a woman who got it right, and she had far less to work with than we do.

She met Jesus at a well in the middle of the day. That's when you go for water if you are trying to avoid everyone who normally goes in the morning (John 4). She had five husbands behind her. And now she was living with a man she wasn't married to. She had learned to keep her head down and her mouth shut.

Then she had a single conversation. She didn't receive any training, didn't go to seminary, didn't have a platform. She had not memorized the Romans Road or any other set of Scriptures. She had only known about this man for a few minutes.

And she left her water jar and walked straight back to the town that had every reason to despise and ignore her. The people who'd watched her, talked about her, and decided what she was without ever knowing her. She walked straight at them and said, “Come

, see a man who told me everything I ever did” (John 4:29).

She had more excuses than any of us. A worse reputation, less knowledge, a tougher crowd, and she hid behind none of it. She just went.

We've been Christians for years, can quote more Scripture than she'd ever heard. Yet she discipled an entire town between lunch and dinner, mere moments after her encounter with Jesus. We on the other hand are still waiting to feel led.

I think we've lost something here in the West and this is where it is most revealed.

We built comfortable spiritual lives, ones we consider manageable. But we never checked them against the ones God actually assigned. We made faith palatable to us. We picked the parts we liked, the ones that fit into our schedules. The ones that feel good on Sunday and don't ask anything of us during the week. We build all of that and call it devotion.

Somewhere in there the fear of God was traded for a service.

The question is not whether to stop going to church. Heavens no. Keep going. Keep studying and praying. Pray for your community and your nation. The question is what you'll do with the command Jesus gave. And carry that question out to the car, and into the table at the restaurant. Somewhere between the menu and the check it will still be sitting there, demanding an answer.

Do you offer a silent prayer for your coworker, or do you step into their cubicle and engage them in their challenges? Do you fuss at the barista who got your name wrong on the cup, or do you invite her to church with you?

And Jesus came and spoke to them, saying, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” Amen. (Matthew 28:18-20)

The command is there. The command is clear. How do you respond?