The Proper Motive - Oedipus and Unintentional Sin

In Sophocles’ three Thebean Plays, the playwright introduces us to a mythical man named Oedipus. Unknowingly raised by an adopted family, Oedipus leaves for another town and marries Jocasta, the widowed queen of the city. They have four children together and love each other dearly. However, there is a problem. Hidden from them both is the fact that Jocasta is Oedipus’ mother. She was certain that her son was dead and he was certain that his parents lived far, far from him. They certainly had no intent to be involved in an incestual relationship, but incest it was.

Throughout the course of the plays, Sophocles insists that Oedipus’ sin was no fault of his own. His only desire was to be in a healthy marriage and he truly loved his wife as a good husband ought. He had no way of possibly knowing that Jocasta was his mother, so how could he be held accountable for actions he did not even intend to commit? Certainly the gods of Greece could not blame him for unknowingly marrying his mother.

This raises an interesting problem for Christians, does God hold us accountable for unintentional sin? Like Oedipus, are we exempt from the guilt of a sin unknowingly committed or do we still bear the guilt?

Leviticus appears to provide a very clear cut answer. In 5:17 the law says, “If anyone sins, doing any of the things that by the Lord’s commandments ought not to be done, though he did not know it, then realizes his guilt, he shall bear his iniquity.”

This verse seems to say that even if you sin unintentionally that you still bear your guilt. In other words, it’s still sin. This brings up an interesting idea for if this is true, then sin does not require volition, or a desire to sin. I used to define sin as “willful disobedience against God”, but if Leviticus is to be believed then sin does not require a will. This is somewhat of a scary thought, for if we don’t have to be willing ourselves to sin then how can we avoid it. If we think we are telling the truth but then find out it is a lie, we are still held guilty for our lie. Even though we had every intention of telling the truth and not sinning. We can still be sinning even when we do all we can to honor God.

I understand the fact that God is holy and cannot allow unholiness, but this just does not make sense to me. Why does God hold us accountable for sins we did not mean to commit, and not just by negligence for not knowing that murder is sin is simply a lack of seeking truth, but when we seek to honor God by telling the truth only to discover it’s a lie and then be caught in sin?

A girl in my group, Megan, said that if we truly love God that we would want to repent even if we had no idea that we were in sin. I agree with her wholeheartedly, but I’m still confused. So I’m looking more into sin…and what it is exactly.

I’d also love to hear what others think about this problem. Hearing from you all always helps the truth seem more clear!

Swinging...

Back and forth
...............Toes touching sky
...............................Falling fast
.............................................Again I fly
.............................................Feet scraping ground
..................................Rope goes slack
...............Air rushes behind
Forth and back

Three Words

"Those three words are said too much, but not enough"

I love you. How often have you said that phrase and not meant a thing by it? Or, tried to say something so deep within your soul that words could never express it? What is love? Is it a feeling or an action? Perhaps both?

Living in this world we are surrounded by false illusions of love. The movies tell us that true love is found in the lips and body of your lover. Even the films that try to tell us to look beyond appearances always end in the 'ugly' girl being kissed passionately. The true sign of love is not being able to keep your hands to yourself. Sadly, this is not limited to films. Everywhere you look, there are boyfriends with their girlfriends who think that physical affection is the only part of love. They say I love you...and mean I want what you can give me.

Then, there is the other extreme. Husbands who batter their wives and children. Women who betray the trust of their families. Just as dangerous are the subtle vices of lovelessness...apathy, disregard, self-centeredness. The family that sees only themselves and desires nothing for the other people in their lives. Who say I love you...but mean nothing at all.

Where then is love? Clearly it is not in the two situations above...but how can we express true love? By being selfless. The center of our cultures problems with love is wrapped in ourselves. We look after our own desires, our own advancement, our own place. In doing so we end up either seeking love for what it can give to us...or abandoning the idea of loving someone altogether. The simple act of sacrifice is what love truly is. It is the loving wife of fifty years who day after day walks to the nursing home where her husband is dying but by her sacrifice, not alone. It is the mother and father who pour every dollar of their two jobs into the hospital bills of their child. It is the friend who refuses to give up even when it seems like to love anymore would too much pain to bear. It is even something as simple as walking with the girl next door and laughing together as you listen to her talk about her crazy uncle back home. The focus of love is not self. It is outward. It is Christ dying on the cross. It is God losing his beloved son. If we truly give of ourselves to others then I love you will mean all that it is meant to mean....and more.

On Greek and Hebrew Thought....

The Greeks and the Hebrews had very different ways of looking at life and how a thing can be known. This is a concept that I have had thrown at me in Torrey and have been trying to wade through in the midst of reading Plato and other Greek books. For the Greeks, you can only know something once you have fully reasoned it out and comprehended it completely . Knowledge and wisdom are gained through reason and the intellect, the mind is glorified as the only way to truth. While there is great merit to the way the Greeks view the world (certainly I would not be in a school that so exalts it if I did not believe that we ought to understand and use this worldview) the Greek view of knowledge is not the Biblical one.

The Bible is written from a Hebrew worldview and therefore contains a very different view of knowing. For the Hebrew mind, the spirit/soul is the essence of knowing something. If a person can place an idea or a truth into their hearts and truly live it out, then they know it. If that knowledge is not transforming your heart, then you don't truly know it. This is important because the reason can never understand the fullness of God. He is too great, too all-inclusive to be understood by something so small human reason.

It seems then that this view is in sharp contradiction to the Greek worldview. The Hebrew mind uses reason, but not as the ultimate means for knowledge, while the Greeks worship reason as the source of all knowledge if not even human goodness. The Bible calls us to pursue transformation, not just information. God wants us to have changed and transformed hearts, not intellectual trophies. However, Greek thought does have its place. The training of the mind is vital to our spiritual growth. As we learn to discipline out minds we can then apply similar principles to other parts of our lives. Also, God has given us the gifts of reason and intellect, it would be a slap in the face of our creator not to use them to the full potential for which God gave them to us.

So where, then, does this leave us? Which worldview do we choose? I would suggest that there is not actually a choice to be made. I believe that we need to adopt an overarching Hebrew mindset and seek not just information but transformation. Yet in the midst of this way of thinking, we need to apply Greek thought to certain areas of our lives and then apply the truths we learn through reason to our lives and hide them in our hearts so that God can use them to change our lives.

Plato and the Trinity

So I've been reading about Plato's Forms and though I do not quite understand them fully (or even somewhat) I did have an idea that I thought might be fun to play with. Could the Trinity be explained in terms of Plato's forms? That is, can God be described as one Essence in three Forms? I'm not sure if the definition of Forms and Essences lends itself to this idea...so if anyone with a more through knowledge of Plato would like to explain why this doesn't work (because I have not heard anyone say that before...and it would seem that an idea like this would have been thought of already...so i have my doubts about how well this works). But if nothing else, this can at least kick off a discussion on the Trinity. :)

For Starters

I must give apt thanks and honor to my dear roommate for helping me to discover the wonderful URL address that has become the home of my new blog.

Now to switch back into normal voice....Welcome to "Where's the Fourth". This is going to be a blog where I post my ideas and thoughts, stories and ponderings. Everyone is welcome to discuss these ideas and stories, in fact, I would love to hear what you all have to say. Also, just feel free to read and think. If I can cause you to consider something new, then this blog has accomplished it's purpose. Not everything that I write on this blog is going to be correct...I can promise you that I will make mistakes. Sometimes I may even be arguing for a belief opposite my own for the sake of trying to understand it better (but i will warn you when this is the case...i promise i'm not going crazy here!).

So updates on how I'm doing will still be on Joshua 1:9 - Where's the Fourth is mainly to keep the clutter off J 1:9 and give me a place to write out what I'm thinking. Hope you enjoy and looking forward to any conversations that might start up.

~Karyn