Dead to Sin? 

God on Monday
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‘So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus’ (Romans 6:11).

Reflection

In his letter to the Romans, St Paul spells out the glorious gospel of grace – that our relationship with God is put right through Christ’s death and resurrection. We are justified by faith, not works.

But such a message could easily be misunderstood to mean that our actions do not really matter. In Romans 6, Paul insists that they do: the logic of baptism (an image of dying and rising again) is that ‘we must consider ourselves dead to sin and alive to God’ (v.11). In the following verse, he writes ‘do not let sin exercise dominion in your mortal bodies, to make you obey their passions’.

This verse is often taken to be about the so-called ‘sins of the flesh’: sexual temptations or abuse of the body through some form of excess. In other words, sin that can be construed as physical, personal and private. But sin that exercises dominion over our bodies also includes more subtle wrongdoing – sins of the mind, tongue, pen or email. We need to be aware of the pressure to participate in such sins that may come from the organisations in which we work.

This pressure can take many forms. These are just a few examples, each mentioned by Paul in his catalogue of wrongdoing in Romans 1:

• Gossip (Rom 1:29) – backbiting and speaking ill of others. Sadly, this is very common in workplaces.
• Boasting (Rom 1:30) – companies generally emphasize their success. But exaggeration and ‘puffery’ can result in half-truths.
• Deceit (Rom 1:29) – half-truths can spill over into outright deception. A widespread example is tax evasion.
• Foolishness (Rom 1:31) – ignoring moral standards enshrined in company codes, thereby suffering reputational damage.

Avoiding toxic corporate culture is therefore an important part of being dead to sin and alive to God. But so is avoiding a ‘holier than thou’ attitude. We need a God-given graciousness to be different in a way that is attractive and inspires others to live out a positive corporate culture.

Response

Think about any subtle forms of wrongdoing in your organisational culture. How can you avoid these and lead others in a more positive direction?

Prayer

Lord, help me to be ‘strong in the Lord and in the strength of his power’ (Eph.6:10), so that I might be a powerful influence for good in my workplace this week.

This Week's Author

God on Monday is produced in partnership with the Church of England. The reflections are based on the scriptural readings designated for the coming Sunday in the Church's lectionary. You can sign up to Faith in Business here to receive each God on Monday instalment. 

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