Unprofitable Experiences

The New Testament describes sins of omission in different ways. One of them is found in Heb. 13:17, where the saints are told to avoid making their rulers’ assigned task a grief. They are to be the kind of parishioners that are a joy to serve, not a grief. When this is not done, the result is unprofitable (alusiteles) for the parishioners themselves. When worshippers in a particular church community find that the whole experience is “unprofitable” for them, this is one of the possible reasons they should check.