a mere housewife
Not your cup of tea
I read some time ago of a convert to Christianity in a country where converts are persecuted, who had very little information about how to please God and very little support from other believers. She had somehow acquired an image of Christ which she kept and prayed and cried to daily. According to my own understanding of the second commandment, I must necessarily believe she was sinning. And yet, it was not a 'regard' of sin in her heart that led to this (as it would be if I used an image in my devotions), but ignorance. I cannot help but believe, having experienced His tender mercies, that our Lord had compassion on this one who was facing hostility from her family and friends and in desperate need of His support; and that the solace she spoke of experiencing in calling upon Him was real.
In the same way I think David was not 'regarding' sin in his polygamous marriages as he was 'regarding' sin in taking the wife of Uriah. It seems that he had less light on this point than on the other; and that he had less light on this point than we do. One of the effects of the fall is that our conscience as well as our understanding is corrupted. We will all, till the day we die, sin not only through being overcome in weakness, but simply in ignorance. Our imperfect understanding, and God's patience with it, doesn't change the nature of sin, or the damage it does to us and others (though the Lord in His mercy often mitigates our impact or turns it in some way to good). We don't lower the standard because we can't meet it. That lowers not only our view of God's holiness, and cheapens our view of our desperate plight -- but it greatly minimises our apprehension of His steadfast love and His mercy. Our hope is never in our own ability to draw a single breath without falling short of moral perfection -- without sin -- but in our perfect Saviour. I am sure the ministers in the thread can say this much better. Yet it is one of the most precious of truths to me, after living with myself for quite enough years to despair not only at all that I do that I know is wrong but at all that I don't even know. I don't think I can express my own understanding of this (something I have wondered about as we see saints then and now failing in various ways -- and turn to look at our own lives) any better so will leave it to the more systematic minds.
In the same way I think David was not 'regarding' sin in his polygamous marriages as he was 'regarding' sin in taking the wife of Uriah. It seems that he had less light on this point than on the other; and that he had less light on this point than we do. One of the effects of the fall is that our conscience as well as our understanding is corrupted. We will all, till the day we die, sin not only through being overcome in weakness, but simply in ignorance. Our imperfect understanding, and God's patience with it, doesn't change the nature of sin, or the damage it does to us and others (though the Lord in His mercy often mitigates our impact or turns it in some way to good). We don't lower the standard because we can't meet it. That lowers not only our view of God's holiness, and cheapens our view of our desperate plight -- but it greatly minimises our apprehension of His steadfast love and His mercy. Our hope is never in our own ability to draw a single breath without falling short of moral perfection -- without sin -- but in our perfect Saviour. I am sure the ministers in the thread can say this much better. Yet it is one of the most precious of truths to me, after living with myself for quite enough years to despair not only at all that I do that I know is wrong but at all that I don't even know. I don't think I can express my own understanding of this (something I have wondered about as we see saints then and now failing in various ways -- and turn to look at our own lives) any better so will leave it to the more systematic minds.