"Respectable Sins"

Jerry Bridges is fast becoming my favorite author.

I recently read The Great Exchange. It is the best book I've read in quite a while.

Since that was so good, I decided to read another of Bridges' books, entitled Respectable Sins.


Respectable Sins is a challenging book to read because Bridges deals with many of the subtle sins that Christians, myself included, try to rationalize away and "sweep under the rug." For example, Bridges has chapters devoted to ungodliness, anxiety and frustration, discontentment, unthankfulness, pride, anger, etc.

I appreciate Jerry Bridges because he writes as if he is sitting down talking with the reader. Also, he is very transparent, admitting to many of these subtle sins he discusses. One very helpful aspect to the book is that he offers specific bible verses that he uses to assist him when dealing with temptation to sin in these areas.

This is basically a book about sanctification. If you have been a Christian for a while, you probably no longer commit what we often consider to be the "big sins." However, we all still struggle with sins that we (not God) somehow consider to not be quite so bad. God doesn't want these in our lives. Before we can deal with these, we must admit that they exist. That's where this book is helpful. In a straightforward but loving manner, Bridges takes on these various sins and points out how they manifest themselves in our lives.

I highly recommend this book to all Christians. If we want to grow in Christ, we must learn to mortify all sin in our lives, even those sins that society and, dare I say it, the church, have deemed respectable.