I’m sitting here in a hotel in Nashville where I’m attending the annual convention of the National Religious Broadcasters. All of the televangelist are here, from the good to the … others. Lots of comb-overs, and most of the rest have high hair. (The unofficial motto here seems to be “the higher the hair, the closer to God.”)

I’m glued to the TV, but I’m not watching a televangelist. I’m watching the news stories about Spitzer’s prostitute fiasco. My mind flashes back to what my mom always told me as a little kid: “Be sure your sins will find you out.”

Political commentators and the friends and enemies of Spitzer are saying similar things. “He should have known that he would get caught, so he shouldn’t have done it.”

But it seems to me that “Be sure your sins will find you out” is a lousy motivation for good behavior. As Mike Erre, my virtual pastor (the guy whose sermons I listen to while on the treadmill), says: We make a mistake in our Christianity when we make it transactional. Transactional faith is premised on the theory that if I do something, then God will react – as in “if I’m good, He’ll bless me” and “if I’m bad, He’ll punish me.” Transactional faith says that we avoid sinning because of the consequences that will eventually follow.

There are two flaws with refraining from sin for fear of discovery. First of all, God knows about it before our sin is committed. So it is already discovered by the One who is most important. Secondly, and most importantly, public knowledge of our sin is the wrong motivation for avoiding it. Instead of a transactional faith that fears the reaction to our sin, I want to be motivated by a relational faith – a faith refrains from sin because I love God so much.

I’m a good enough lawyer and schemer that I, probably like Clinton and Spitzer, could delude myself into thinking that I could pull off adultery without discovery. So, I believe it is my love for my wife (not fear of discovery) that keeps me from cheating on her. And that is how it should be with our attitude toward our sins: Is our love for God our primary motivation for our conduct? Do we refrain from sin because we want to obey God and honor Him?

Conversely, when our sin is uncovered and made public, is our confession motivated by true repentance and sorrow, or are we simply sorry we got caught? But this is a discussion for another day.  Right now I have to rush back to the convention floor where some televangelist is shouting, "Jesus wants to save you, but he won't do it for free."