The Real Sin of Sodom (it's not what you thought)

by Jan 18, 2011

Joel Brooks writes this:

Almost everyone is familiar with the story of God raining down judgment on Sodom and Gomorrah because of their wickedness. And most people assume that the sin for which Sodom was judged was sexual immorality. This is certainly how I heard this passage taught when I was younger. But the prophet Ezekiel tells us otherwise. Ezekiel 16:49 says, “This was the guilt of your sister Sodom: she and her daughters had pride, excess of food, and prosperous ease, but did not aid the poor and needy.” Sodom was judged for pride, living a life of ease, and neglecting the poor and needy—not simply for sexual sin. I don’t know about you, but suddenly this story just became a little uncomfortable for me. Instead of casting judgment on the people of Sodom, I began to identify with them.

But how does this story give us our mandate to serve the unrighteous poor? The answer is that the neglected poor of Sodom were not considered by God to be righteous. This is why they too were judged. Remember, God told Abraham that he would spare the entire city if just 10 righteous people were to be found, but there were not even 10. They were all unrighteous—rich and poor alike. The sin of Sodom was their lack of concern for the unrighteous poor, and the result of this sin was God’s judgment on both the rich and poor alike.

I have found that helping the unrighteous poor is perhaps also the best way to remind myself of the gospel by which I am saved. I did not receive mercy because I deserved it. Jesus Christ did not give his life for me because I was a good person. No, I was his enemy and full of sin when he died for me. I never did and never will earn his grace. Grace is always unmerited. So when I see how the unrighteous poor respond with bitterness to my acts of kindness, I am reminded of my own spiritual condition. Even now, I often fail to thank God for his continuous and abundant grace towards me. Thank God for the gospel by which I am being saved!

This Sunday, we’ll begin studying the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 5. In it, Jesus will commend people who are poor in spirit and who hunger for righteousness.

What’s interesting to me is that Luke 6 records the same sermon, with a few small changes. In Luke’s version, Jesus commends people who are physically poor and physically hungry. Evidently, this is a sermon Jesus gave multiple times in different versions, and by doing so he was intentionally connecting physical poverty with spiritual poverty.

What’s that mean for us? That we need to be around physically poor people to remind ourselves how spiritually poor we really are. Jesus said, “When you give a feast, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind, and you will be blessed, because they cannot repay you” (Luke 14:13-14).We need to bless those who cannot give us anything back, because that’s exactly what God has done for us through Jesus Christ.