But... Is it Sin?
The Sanctified Imagination - Part 5
Quick Recap
We are currently in our series on the Sanctified Imagination (similar to, but different than, our series on a Theology of Video Games). As a reminder, our imagination is that place in our minds in which all thoughts, images, and senses dwell (whether from ourselves or elsewhere).
Our imagination is built up of a number of “Building Blocks”, or the things we give our minds so that we can imagine the future and live into that future. A Sanctified Imagination is one that is being fed building blocks of the Kingdom and can imagine (and live into) a Kingdom future.
Part one of this article dove into the first of those building blocks: the content we consume. We learned that something is good/bad (or holy/profane) not based on the subject matter, but on how that piece of content handles that subject matter. Then we learned the questions to ask to grow in discernment.
Now we’ll detour to discuss the most common objection to spiritual formation in this regard.
Before we continue on to our second building block, we must address one question (or perhaps “objection”).
When I’m having a conversation one-on-one with someone about the building blocks they’re giving their imagination, a particular line of thought has a way of rising to the surface, and it usually sounds something like, “But Phil, this isn’t a sin.”
Consider someone reading Fifty Shades of Gray or playing Grand Theft Auto or watching the newest horror film. Nowhere in the Bible does it say reading a book, playing a game, or watching a movie is sin, so therefore there shouldn’t be limits on such consumption.
This is how the line of thinking goes, anyway.
Interestingly, the more I learn about sin the more convinced I am that our definitions are often too narrow.
But narrow or wide, that really isn’t the point. More times than not, when we try to wrestle with whether something is (or isn’t) sin, we’re actually just trying to figure out how we can have Jesus and whatever else. We all know that Jesus wouldn’t watch that new show with us, but as long as we’re convinced he’s not so pious as to condemn us to hell for it, we’re happy.
Phylicia Masonheimer said it well.
“Christians today… often tend to look for the lowest common denominator and […] ask, ‘is it a sin?’ [...] when the real question isn’t ‘how far can I go?’ but ‘how holy can I be?’”1
But being holy isn’t what most of us want. If given the option, most of us would trade holiness for happiness. Few of us in the western Church are engaging in the meaningful struggle to become more like Christ, and that’s because too few of us are even convinced we should be striving to be like Him at all.
How often have you heard, “well, I’m not Jesus” in response to someone’s sin or lack of purity? How many times have you been the one to say it? Those words distance us from the expectation of being like Christ and—without realizing it—distance us from Jesus as well.
Often, we are the rich young ruler who came to Jesus wanting both eternal life and his earthly treasures, claiming to have kept all the commands.
When Jesus heard this, he said to him, “You still lack one thing. Sell everything you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.”
When he heard this, he became very sad, because he was very wealthy. Jesus looked at him and said, “How hard it is for the rich to enter the kingdom of God! Indeed, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God.”
Those who heard this asked, “Who then can be saved?”
Jesus replied, “What is impossible with man is possible with God.”2
Was it a sin for this rich man to not sell all of his possessions and follow Jesus?
To be honest, I don’t know. But what I am certain of is that he didn’t enter the fullness of life Jesus had for him. Whether he knew it or not, he made a trade and lost Heavenly treasure in leu of earthly ones. Or, better yet, he denied a trade offered by Jesus. The man had earthly wealth and Jesus offered something more, and the rich young ruler turned it down.
If you read this story and try to figure out what is, and isn’t, sin… then you’ve missed the point.
In our earliest years of following Jesus, it’s normal to want to know what is and isn’t sin, like toddlers learning to keep our fingers out of electrical sockets. But toddlers must grow up and leave such things behind. Mature followers of Jesus aren’t asking “is this sin?” but instead, “is this helping me become more like Jesus?” Or as Masonheimer would put it, “Is this making me more holy?”
At some point, if someone truly is a disciple to the Messiah, every stumbling block between them and Jesus becomes something they desire to hurl into the sea—whether or not it's sin, earthly treasures, or anything in between.
Interestingly, in the very next chapter of the Gospel of Luke, we see another rich man come to Jesus. It’s worth reading this passage in full, with the story of the rich young ruler firm in our minds.
Jesus entered Jericho and was passing through. A man was there by the name of Zacchaeus; he was a chief tax collector and was wealthy. He wanted to see who Jesus was, but because he was short he could not see over the crowd. So he ran ahead and climbed a sycamore-fig tree to see him, since Jesus was coming that way.
When Jesus reached the spot, he looked up and said to him, “Zacchaeus, come down immediately. I must stay at your house today.” So he came down at once and welcomed him gladly.
All the people saw this and began to mutter, “He has gone to be the guest of a sinner.”
But Zacchaeus stood up and said to the Lord, “Look, Lord! Here and now I give half of my possessions to the poor, and if I have cheated anybody out of anything, I will pay back four times the amount.”
Jesus said to him, “Today salvation has come to this house, because this man, too, is a son of Abraham. For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.”3
Another rich man, but this one so adamantly desiring Jesus he (unprompted) gives up his possessions. Did he buy his way into salvation? Surely not. But his radical conversion to the way of Jesus was demonstrated by his willingness to give up all that he owned. To go from rich to poor (as his claim surely would have done).4
Luke offers these men up as a character study. A Saul and David story, in only a few verses.
The first man, unworthy of even being named in the gospels, wanted to know how to get eternal life while keeping as much of his life as possible. Our second man, a wretched tax collector whose name will forever live in the gospels, Zacchaeus, did not consider the things of this life as even worth being counted when compared to Jesus.
Listen.
We are trying to figure out how to create imaginations that are more like Jesus’ in order to become more fully like Him. Neither you nor I have the time to waste on lesser things. Whether something is, or isn’t, sin should not be your primary concern. Instead, join Paul in saying, “I count all things to be loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them mere rubbish, so that I may gain Christ…”5
As we continue our journey into the building blocks of our imaginations, we will ignore the question “but is playing this game or listening to this music a sin?” Instead, we’ll ask a harder question, a question that does more to shed light on ourselves and our desires.
We’ll ask, “how does this form my imagination?”
We must be both critical and brave. It will be easy to water down our answers in order to maintain the life we want. But we don’t want to be like the rich young ruler, who walked away sad because he could not dare to lose earthly wealth for heavenly treasure. We must be like Zacchaeus, who without any prompting, gave away his wealth out of a sheer response to the good news of Jesus.
“The Rise of Women’s Porn with Phylicia Masonheimer”, The Bulletin, Christianity Today, 5-13-25.
Luke 18: 22-27 NIV
Luke 19:1-9 NIV
Well, he became poor in a worldly sense. I suspect he would have considered himself far richer after his earthly possessions were gone.
Philippians 3:8 NASB