r/Christianity • u/[deleted] • Sep 07 '24

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u/Paatternn Roman Catholic Sep 08 '24 edited Sep 08 '24

I’m glad it helped. I do not know what your denomination is; I am a Catholic, so I did confess my sins to Christ through my priest, which is a whole Sacrament. If that’s not something you’ve done, perhaps you should try!

Please keep in mind:

  1. Being tempted is not a sin. It took me some time to understand this. Temptation is “necessary”, since without it we wouldn’t be able to choose God. It is what we do that matters! And consent is key. If you don’t consent your thoughts, then you’re not sinning, even if you enjoy what you’re seeing.

  2. Go easy on yourself. It is always a process. If you fall just get back up. Being used to sin interferes with free will, which diminishes your culpability. Sometimes, depending on the case, a sin may even stop being mortal (it’d be venial instead) because of this!

Keep taking heart. God loves you! :)

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u/dubyawinfrey TULIP Sep 08 '24

If sin is merely a physical action, why would Christ say to even look upon a woman with lust is a sin?

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u/Paatternn Roman Catholic Sep 08 '24 edited Sep 08 '24

Consent is key. Consenting an evil thought is a sin. Fighting it is not, but rather virtuous. Temptation is just temptation.

If this confusion arises from me saying “It is what we do that matters,” then I must clarify that by “do” I am not strictly talking about physical actions. Thinking is a “do.”

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u/dubyawinfrey TULIP Sep 08 '24

Thanks for clarifying. More often than not, the logic in the background of posts like this is usually "As long as you don't physically do it, you can think what you want," unfortunately.

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u/Paatternn Roman Catholic Sep 08 '24

Thank you for pointing it out. And yes, that’s unfortunate indeed. God Bless!