Justin Bieber Theology… not three words you would have thought to see together!
You can read books about theology and be inspired, or hear a preach and feel challenged, you can even watch a Christian TV channel and hear God speak, but there are those moments when God speaks to you through unusual ways or people.
This can often be a moment of clarity, where maybe a Bible verse stands out to you or a story sticks in your mind and you remember it, you meditate on it, and you pray about what God is trying to say to you.
For me, I had one of those moments in February 2020 when I was surfing through Facebook and noticed an article about Justin Bieber and something he had said in an interview. As Bieber is a famous figure and quite open about his faith, a lot of Christian people report on what he says and his lifestyle. I don’t know him, but I think he’s brilliant in his honesty and the journey that he’s obviously on. But he would not be the first person I would think of when it comes to God speaking to me – potentially a reflection of my pride, but I haven’t been able to stop thinking about something he said and God has really been speaking to me through it.
He released an album on Valentines Day and was being interviewed by Apple Music when he said (among other things!)…
“I never really…When it says, following Jesus, it’s actually turning away from sin,” he explained. “What it talks about in the Bible, there’s no faith without obedience. I had had faith about like, ‘I believe Jesus died on the cross for me, but I never really implemented it into my life.’ I never like, ‘I’m gonna be obedient.”
It’s a simple concept isn’t it? Following Jesus is actually turning away from sin…
I doubt that he really understood how profound that statement was, or maybe he did and again my pride is getting in the way! But it resonated with me – so many people I’ve known who have come to faith and made a decision to follow Jesus have ‘fallen away’ because of sin.
Peoples faces came into my mind and I thought of all the reasons why they didn’t continue on with their discipleship journey and decided that God and Church wasn’t for them. But here’s the kicker – when we think of sin we think of the bad ones or the obvious ones, but really sin is a bigger and more exhaustive than that.
What is Sin?
Sin is ‘missing the mark’ and falling short of our creation. Sin is what we describe as the things that stand between God and us; the things that cause friction in our relationship with the Almighty. Paul wrote in Romans 3:23, “All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” Therefore, sin isn’t something exclusive to a group or type of people – it influences us all and effects us all.
Without going into an incredibly detailed theological perspective on sin (and I could write thousands of words and reference hundreds of Bible verses!) sin could be described as disobedience to God. To take it a little further – sin is when we choose ourselves over righteousness.
What I mean by this is that the Bible, especially the New Testament, guides us today in the way we should live and act. When there is a sin in our lives and we are unwilling to address it, or be willing to fight it, or even to admit that it’s wrong, the sin is getting in the way of our obedience to God.
It obstructs the very thing that should mean the most to us.
If you’re a Christian reading this – you’ll know that your faith and relationship with God is so fundamental to your life that you don’t know what you would do without it. God is your refuge, God’s your hope, God is love, and God gives you purpose. But when something interrupts or distorts your relationship with God, you can lose your way.
So, when Justin Bieber says, “… Following Jesus, it’s actually turning away from sin.” It’s profound! Because it’s not just deciding not to lie, steal, or commit a ‘big’ sin – it’s becoming aware of what sin is; it’s becoming aware of the value of obedience.
What can we learn from Justin Bieber’s theological insight?
- The Christian life is more that just putting your hand up and responding to an altar call. If we want to be disciples or even to disciple others, we have to be aware of all the things that effect us in the long-term journey of being a Christian. If we don’t, we are setting people up to fail and fall away from their faith. Let’s be disciple-makers who walk the journey and have the deep conversations with those we are discipling.
- Obedience to God’s word and the Holy Spirit in our lives is vital to living a full life. No one likes the word obedience, but if we want all the good things that Christian life has to offer, we have to submit and be aware of righteousness, sin, and how these things have a significant impact on our minds, bodies, and spirits.
- If you’re feeling distant from God or indifferent about church, is there sin in your life getting in the way? Sometimes even the subtlest of sins can influence us in big ways. God wants what’s best for you! He wants you to be close to Himself and wants good things for your life. Why not pray today and see if something will be revealed to you about a sin that needs to be dealt with?
I hope that we can all be so honest, as Justin Bieber was, when it comes to the things we’re dealing with and the insights we’re getting about ourselves along this crazy journey of life. Just as I have mentioned above, we all need to humble ourselves and have a close look at the way we are viewing the world and remove the disobedience, unrighteousness, and sin in our lives.
Do you have a question about what’s written here? Or a reflection on what Justin Bieber shared? Feel free to share it in the comments below. But express it with love and honesty and don’t sin in the comments… as that would be a little too ironic!
