There are few things more heart-wrenching in ministry than watching someone you care about head down a destructive path. This is particularly difficult when they cloak their unwise or sinful choices in spiritual language.
We see this play out in 1 Samuel 15 with King Saul. Through the prophet Samuel, God commands Saul and his Israelite army to be a tool of God’s judgment against the Amalekites. They were commanded to utterly destroy all Amalekites and everything associated with them.1 [1]God is always just in all of his dealings. Defending the righteousness of God’s judgment and the apologetic arguments surrounding this account go beyond the scope of this blog. Saul partially obeyed but spared the king and much of the livestock. This was an obvious transgression of God’s clear command. Yet, Saul insisted that he, “obeyed the voice of the Lord” and that he had “gone on the mission on which the Lord sent” him (see v. 20). He is reframing his sin as if it is righteousness.
The sad reality is that sin is so deceitful that it can be paraded as righteousness. We must be aware of our susceptibility to this self-deception and also be listening for it when we counsel others. Spiritualizing sin is most often the result of wrong assumptions about God. My goal in this article is to tease out some of these wrong assumptions that can lead us to hide our sins behind spiritual terminology.
Assuming God’s “Will” Can Contradict God’s Word
King Saul sought to justify his actions by claiming a righteous motive for his disobedience. He tells the prophet that the people spared the livestock to sacrifice to the Lord (see v. 21). He could very well be lying about the intended sacrifice of the livestock, but it doesn’t matter. Even if he intended to have the people sacrifice the animals, he still did not do as he was commanded. Saul foolishly thinks he can wiggle out of his guilt by claiming that he has a righteous intent behind his disregard for God’s command. Saul’s assumption that God would be more delighted by lots of sacrifices than simple obedience is wrong. His logic is off because God was clear in his expectations. Samuel sees through the charade and labels Saul’s actions as a rebellious rejection of God’s Word.
Saul demonstrates a dangerous assumption: that God’s will can contradict His Word.2 [1]I’m using “will” here to describe what is sometimes God’s preceptive will. It is what he commands to happen but is often disobeyed by sinful people. I am not speaking of his will of decree which is his divine purpose which will be accomplished. For some, it is as if what God truly wants can contradict what he has revealed. However, God’s will for you will never contradict God’s Word to you. God’s purposes for you will never go against his revealed Word. What is truly pleasing to God is to do his revealed will, to obey him completely from the heart.
The most brazen example of this is the person who persists in sin because “God told them to do so.” Whether it is a man abandoning his family or a young woman who is set on marrying an unbeliever, many claim that God is leading them to act inconsistently with his revealed Word. Many unwise and sinful choices have been blamed on God by claiming to hear the voice of God, reading signs from above, being prompted by the Spirit, or being driven by feelings. Spiritualizing sin will always discount the clear teaching of Scripture.
Assuming the Motives of the Heart can be Trusted
When Saul points out how great the spared sheep and oxen will be for sacrifices, Samuel asks, “Has the Lord as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying the voice of the Lord?” (1 Samuel 15:22). It is better to obey than to offer sacrifices that were not commanded in the first place. External observances are right when kept appropriately, but they can never be substituted for internal obedience. Samuel understands Saul’s actions not as a good-hearted attempt that fell short. He calls the actions of the king rebellious and presumptuous, comparing them to divination and idolatry. For all the talk of the great sacrifices the people could offer, Saul had rejected the Word and the Lord. Saul’s appeal to a good thing like sacrifices did not absolve him of his sinful motive and disobedience.
Spiritualizing sin often makes an appeal to a good or right motive to justify itself. Years ago, I confronted a man for the way he was provoking his teenager to anger. His heavy-handed parenting was making it easy for her to want to rebel against his authority. When I mentioned that he was part of the problem, he pushed back, sarcastically saying, “So, you think my daughter shouldn’t respect me.” His desire for respect sounds good, but he was using it to mask his manipulative and coercive parenting.
Others make the mistake of trusting the motives of the heart by using their desires as the ultimate guide to happiness. “God wants me to be happy,” they say, as they insist that their joy is tied up in the fulfillment of every desire. To believe that happiness lies in the fulfillment of every desire is the essence of folly. It is leaning on our own understanding and rejecting the clear Word of the Lord. Spiritualizing sin in this way discounts the deceitfulness of sin and the mixed motives of the heart.
Ironically, God does want them to be happy. It is a true statement as far as it goes. Jesus told his disciples in John 15 that he is teaching them so that their joy may be made full and that his joy might be experienced by them (v. 11). But the joy of which Christ speaks is wrapped up in abiding in Christ, bearing fruit, keeping his commandments, and loving others. This joy is listening to the Word of the Lord and keeping it from the heart.
Assuming the Blame For Sin Lies in Somewhere Else
Sometimes sin is spiritualized by an appeal to something or someone else in God’s creation. Saul tried to pin his disobedience on others by deceptively shifting the blame to the people around him. He says, “… the people took of the spoil, sheep and oxen, the best of the things devoted to destruction, to sacrifice to the Lord your God in Gilgal” (1 Samuel 15:21). We can hear a faint echo of Adam’s voice in Saul: “It was that woman you gave me.” Suddenly, he isn’t the king leading the people; he is a detached observer of “the people” who failed to heed God’s Word.
Spiritualizing sin often takes the form of blame-shifting. These types of excuses often focus on created things:
“I just speak my mind, that’s the way God made me.”
“I got dysregulated, so I lashed out at you.”
“I wouldn’t have committed adultery if my wife would have paid more attention to me.”
These all subtly transfer the blame to social, biological, or environmental forces. They spiritualize sin by placing the guilt on someone or something besides oneself. However, the passage we’ve been thinking through does not allow for this sort of sly maneuvering. Samuel quickly points out that as the king, Saul bears the responsibility for his actions. Saul rejected the Word of the Lord. He rejected God’s kingly authority, and, as a result, God rejected Saul as king over his people.
Our Response
Saul eventually confesses that he feared the people and obeyed their voice (1 Samuel 15:24). Behind all the subtle blame-shifting, the rationalization, and the spiritualized excuses, there lies a sinful motive—the fear of man. You can expect to find hidden motives behind every spiritualized sin.
When you begin to hear this sort of blame-shifting in counseling, you want to discern whether this person needs gentle correction or direct confrontation. Some may be genuinely in need of understanding the authority of Scripture, the hidden motives of the heart, etc. Over time, the humble person will be delighted by the clarity of God’s Word and submit themselves to it. Others will be proud, often continuing to cloak their sin in righteous language. Instead of getting dragged into a debate, you can ask, “What if you knew for a fact that God did not want you to (fill in the blank)? Would you turn around and head in a different direction?” This helps to get to the heart of the matter. They may very well say, “No, I’m going to do what I want to do.” At least then you’ve allowed the person to hear from their own lips what is truly going on in their heart. Then you can proceed to speak of repentance and submission to God’s Word. If the counselee expresses a desire to do what God says, then you can engage them with the relevant texts for their particular situation.
Conclusion
The common thread that runs through the different assumptions that we discussed above is a disregard of God’s Word. This was Saul’s failure. He rejected the Word of the Lord. The narrative ends with Saul and Samuel going in separate directions. The one who has been delivering the Word of the Lord to Saul has departed. Dale Ralph Davis writes, “… the worst of Saul’s liabilities was that he was without the guidance of Yahweh from his prophet. To be stripped of the direction of God’s word is to be truly impoverished and open to destruction. It is one thing to be in terrible distress; it is another to be alone in that distress. Saul had isolated himself from what he needed most—the word of Yahweh for his way.”3 [1]Davis, D. R. (2000). [2]1 Samuel: Looking on the Heart (p. 137). Christian Focus Publications.
Spiritualizing sin is not a harmless misunderstanding. It is a rejection of God’s authority masquerading as righteousness. As counselors, we want to be aware of the deceitfulness of our hearts. We must not assume that we are above this sort of self-deception. By God’s grace, we must also help others see both the authority and beauty of God’s Word. Hearing and obeying brings real joy. Jesus assures us, “These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full” (John 15:11).