"Jesus answered them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Whosoever committeth sin is the servant of sin."
John 8:34
This idea is interesting because I think a lot of the time when we sin, we think that we are getting away with something... that it is somehow making us more free, to do whatever we want in the moment. And yet, even without that initial faith, our experience and perspective show us that Christ's words are true. Sins trap us. They preoccupy our minds, they take over our priorities, and they start to run our lives. We start doing things and arranging our lives to support the sin, rather than feeling free to walk away from it. We start thinking of it as who we are, branding ourselves its servants, and helping to pass those sins on to others.
We've probably all seen or heard of extreme cases with gambling, smoking, pornography, or dishonesty. These things can ruin our lives: our health, our financial stability, our marriages and family relationships, and our jobs. But even if we aren't embezzling or doing other serious things, sin still harms us, and the people around us. Sometimes we don't even know it is happening. We can become preoccupied with foul language or sexual thoughts, and think... hey, that's just society. Everyone thinks and talks this way. But they don't. We're self-selecting environments and encouraging the people around us to choose those things, and we don't see the other environments because we're poisoning them ourselves, trapped in our own assumptions. We don't know how to stop doing or spreading those things because we're far into a habit. This holds true for a lot of sins, and is a good reason to attend church and find a group of people who help us to realize that we can work and live without those self-inflicted chains, free ourselves to function without those obsessions, and feel comfortable in sin-free environments.
Today, let's not trap ourselves in sin, or spread it to others. Let's repent, turn to God in prayer, and realize that sin doesn't have to define anyone. We can change. We can become pure and clean and good, no matter what we have been before. Christ suffered for exactly this reason... to free us from bondage, and make us free indeed.
John 8:34
This idea is interesting because I think a lot of the time when we sin, we think that we are getting away with something... that it is somehow making us more free, to do whatever we want in the moment. And yet, even without that initial faith, our experience and perspective show us that Christ's words are true. Sins trap us. They preoccupy our minds, they take over our priorities, and they start to run our lives. We start doing things and arranging our lives to support the sin, rather than feeling free to walk away from it. We start thinking of it as who we are, branding ourselves its servants, and helping to pass those sins on to others.
We've probably all seen or heard of extreme cases with gambling, smoking, pornography, or dishonesty. These things can ruin our lives: our health, our financial stability, our marriages and family relationships, and our jobs. But even if we aren't embezzling or doing other serious things, sin still harms us, and the people around us. Sometimes we don't even know it is happening. We can become preoccupied with foul language or sexual thoughts, and think... hey, that's just society. Everyone thinks and talks this way. But they don't. We're self-selecting environments and encouraging the people around us to choose those things, and we don't see the other environments because we're poisoning them ourselves, trapped in our own assumptions. We don't know how to stop doing or spreading those things because we're far into a habit. This holds true for a lot of sins, and is a good reason to attend church and find a group of people who help us to realize that we can work and live without those self-inflicted chains, free ourselves to function without those obsessions, and feel comfortable in sin-free environments.
Today, let's not trap ourselves in sin, or spread it to others. Let's repent, turn to God in prayer, and realize that sin doesn't have to define anyone. We can change. We can become pure and clean and good, no matter what we have been before. Christ suffered for exactly this reason... to free us from bondage, and make us free indeed.
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