Vietnam Evangelical Covenant Church – Do not be deceived: whoever sows to please the flesh will reap destruction from the flesh (Galatians 6:8). The wages of sin is death (Romans 6:23). On that day many will say they knew Him, yet He will send them away as “workers of lawlessness” (Matthew 7:21–23). These warnings are written for Christians, and the Spirit uses them to keep us in the fear of the Lord and turning away from sin.
Some sins we know are wrong, yet we keep them because we think we can control them, like keeping a small pet. This article reminds us that sin is never harmless, and that God calls us to kill sin decisively rather than tame it. Scripture quotations are from the Berean Standard Bible (BSB).
“Sorry, could you repeat what you just said?” I was sure he had misspoken.
“So you are saying that if we regularly struggle with sexual sin, we should quit gradually by cutting back? If we fall six times a week, we should limit it to five, then four, three, two, until we reach zero?”
The leader of the Christian men’s program restated his point while the men around me nodded at its apparent wisdom. After all, we had just watched Jimmy’s video testimony of how he went from sinning several times a day to… several times a month. Surely the strategy worked.
The friend who had brought me asked, “With all due respect, can you really say that? Do you know what sin is?”
As he kept talking, it became clear that he did not. To him, gratifying the flesh a few times a week was, in the end, helpful to our holiness. A few slices of forbidden fruit were not really that bad. Sin could be managed, tamed and controlled. Stopping outright seemed extreme; just reduce it gradually.
To him, sin was not:
- God’s glory not honored.
- God’s holiness not reverenced.
- God’s greatness not admired.
- God’s power not praised.
- God’s truth not sought.
- God’s wisdom not esteemed.
- God’s beauty not treasured.
- God’s goodness not savored.
- God’s faithfulness not trusted.
- God’s promises not believed.
- God’s commandments not obeyed.
- God’s justice not respected.
- God’s wrath not feared.
- God’s grace not cherished.
- God’s presence not prized.
- God Himself not loved.
Nor was it a defiance of God’s justice, a trampling on His mercy, a mockery of His patience, a slighting of His power and a contempt of His love (John Bunyan). To him, sin was like breaking the speed limit: nothing personal.
It was not a wound to our greatest Lover, a betrayal of our most faithful Friend, dishonor toward our heavenly Father, an act of war against the sovereign King, or a creature’s offense against the Almighty Creator.
Any one of these is enough to condemn the whole world. And yet a few stumbles a week is apparently fine? Is sin a pet we should eventually get rid of, but in the meantime we can scratch its belly and teach it to play dead?
Sin Is Not a Pet
Sin is not a pet to walk a few times a week. It is a lion, a wolf, a bear. It bites and hunts at all times. It strikes like a piranha. It is restless evil glowing with the fire of hell. Sin cannot be trained, restrained or domesticated. Nor can it be freed, reformed or redeemed. Sin never agrees to wear a collar, stay in its cage or take its claws off your throat.
Sin marks us as targets for the wrath of God (Colossians 3:5–6). Those who practice it deserve death (Romans 1:32). Sin will be exposed and hated (Psalm 36:1–2). We must never make peace with sin, never feed it, never pencil it into our calendar. Sin must be put to death by the Spirit if we are to live (Romans 8:13). It would be safer to keep a tiger than a pet sin.
The Lizard on the Shoulder
Yet many try. In The Great Divorce, C.S. Lewis pictures a ghost outside heaven who carries a little red lizard on his shoulder, his pet sin. The lizard keeps whispering, and the ghost keeps scolding it. An angel offers to silence it, and the ghost eagerly agrees. But when the angel says the only way is to kill it, and steps forward with a burning hand, the ghost recoils.
He begins to make excuses: the angel never mentioned anything so drastic; perhaps they can discuss it later; look, the lizard has gone to sleep; surely he can keep it in line from now on. Again and again the angel simply asks, “May I kill it?” Lewis’s point is clear: the gradual approach does not work.
Meanwhile, the lizard whispers in the ghost’s ear: if the angel kills me, you will lose me forever; how will you live without me? I admit I have gone too far before, but I promise to be good. I will give you only pleasant dreams, sweet and almost innocent.
It is far easier to fall into the cycle of training our sins than killing them. If your main reason for resisting sin is that you do not want to confess it again in your accountability group, you are training your sin. If you only pray about it after you have fallen again, you are training it. If you are not seeking God’s presence, not communing with Him in prayer and His Word, and not asking brothers and sisters for help, you are teaching your sin to play dead instead of killing it.
Go and Sin No More
If you have a pet sin, you must give it up now. Your salvation depends on it. Only those who turn from sin will enter heaven, only those who “work out your salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you to will and to act on behalf of His good purpose” (Philippians 2:12–13).
But what about being saved by faith alone? Not quite. You are justified by faith alone. Final salvation comes through justification and sanctification, both begun and sustained by the grace of God. There is a holiness without which no one will see the Lord (Hebrews 12:14). “But we should always thank God for you, brothers who are loved by the Lord, because God chose you as the firstfruits of salvation through sanctification by the Spirit and through belief in the truth” (2 Thessalonians 2:13).
Do not be deceived. Whoever sows to please the flesh will reap destruction from the flesh (Galatians 6:8). The wages of sin is death (Romans 6:23). On that day many will say they knew Him, but He will send them away as “workers of lawlessness” (Matthew 7:21–23). These are warnings for Christians, and the Spirit uses them to keep us in the fear of the Lord and turning from sin.
Christians do not train their dragons. We do not plan to sin five times a week, then four, then three, until we rebel only occasionally. After forgiving a sinner, Jesus did not say go and sin less; He said go and sin no more. Kill your pet sin, or in the end it will kill you.
Breaking With Sin by God’s Grace
Turning from sin is not something we do in our own strength. Romans 8:13 teaches that it is “by the Spirit” that we put to death the deeds of the body. Confess your sin to God, receive the forgiveness He promises, and ask the Holy Spirit for strength each day.
Think of one “pet sin” you are still keeping. Don’t wait for it to grow bigger. Today, tell God and a trusted brother or sister in Christ, and cut off whatever is feeding it.
You may also like: Bible Verses About Temptation and 5 Ways to Break Bad Habits.
Prayer
Lord, forgive us for taking sin lightly. Help us see sin as You see it, and by the Holy Spirit turn from it decisively. Thank You that the blood of Jesus is enough to cleanse us. In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.
Article: Communications Ministry – Vietnam Evangelical Covenant Church
Adapted from: DesiringGod.org
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