Galatians 6:7-8
7 Do not be deceived: God is not mocked, for whatever one sows, that will he also reap.
8 For the one who sows to his own flesh will from the flesh reap corruption, but the one who sows to the Spirit will from the Spirit reap eternal life.
7 Do not be deceived: God is not mocked, for whatever one sows, that will he also reap.
8 For the one who sows to his own flesh will from the flesh reap corruption, but the one who sows to the Spirit will from the Spirit reap eternal life.
A pastor I was listening to many moons ago made the following remark: "Sin always takes us farther than we ever wanted to go and costs us more than we ever wanted to pay." He went on to point out that the harvest of what we sow in our lives is always later than we sow and more than we sow. He's right. But so many, it seems, don't stop to consider the end of the road of sin on which they decide to embark. Very often, that end entails terrible bondage to sin, addiction to evil thinking and behaviour the effect of which can be devastating.
The obvious example, of course, is inappropriate content. Myriad are those who "sneak a peek" at a inappropriate contentographic image and find themselves powerfully stimulated. Instead of such a reaction warning them off of looking again, however, it is an incentive to look further. The thought never is, "Wow. The effect of that image was really powerful! I'd better be careful to avoid looking again. Gas on the flame and all that." No, it never occurs to the person tempted by inappropriate content that such a powerful, visceral, fleshly reaction to it means addiction is just around the corner.
And so, when those tempted by inappropriate content look again, and again, and thousands of images later find themselves deeply addicted, they wonder at how severely they've been hooked. But what's worse is that, having been bound so thoroughly, caught within a powerful physiological/biochemical current that seems irresistible, the inappropriate content addict proclaims him/herself a victim. The development of an overwhelming physical dimension to their sin, the thinking seems to be, frees them of responsibility for its development and of the need to do anything about it. And the more severe the addiction, the more thoroughly this thinking is embraced.
Under this thinking a passivity forms, a sort of hopeless tractability that yields fatalistically to the addiction, like a prisoner in a concentration camp resigned to being beaten again by the guards. What can I do? he thinks, I'm bound and there's no way out. This naturally leads to a situation where even the possibility of freedom is denied. The sense of victimhood can be so powerful that the person seized by it cannot accept the idea that there might be a way to freedom. And they are dead certain they can't participate in getting free, nor should they, as the victim, be expected to.
There is, in this circumstance, a "double-whammy" laid upon the person caught in sin. Not only has their sin produced a serious physiological hurdle to getting free, but they have come to believe that this hurdle means they have no alternative - or obligation - but to continue under the power of their sin. This thinking can grow so extreme that the addict to sin comes to expect sympathy in response to their addiction! And the devil laughs.
It isn't just the inappropriate content addict, of course, who is lured into this sort of thinking. The anxious, the unhappy, the gluttonous, the resentful, the unforgiving, the angry, the video gamer, or t.v.-obsessed - these (and many others, besides) also find themselves conditioned physiologically by their sin and thus (in the eyes of the World, anyway) relieved of personal responsibility for doing anything about it.
What ends up happening often when this view is adopted is that the effects of an addiction to sin are merely managed rather than dissolved; accommodation rather than liberation becomes the goal. But God has warned that hardening, corruption and death are the bitter fruit of this approach to sin.
Romans 6:23
23 For the wages of sin is death...
James 1:14-15
14 But every man is tempted, when he is drawn away of his own lust, and enticed.
15 Then when lust has conceived, it brings forth sin: and sin, when it is finished, brings forth death.
Romans 3:10-16
10 As it is written, There is none righteous, no, not one:
11 There is none who understands, there is none who seeks after God.
12 They are all gone out of the way, they are together become unprofitable; there is no one who does good, no, not one.
13 Their throat is an open sepulchre; with their tongues they have used deceit; the poison of asps is under their lips:
14 Whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness:
15 Their feet are swift to shed blood:
16 Destruction and misery are in their ways:
Philippians 3:18-19
18 For many, of whom I have often told you and now tell you even with tears, walk as enemies of the cross of Christ.
19 Their end is destruction, their god is their belly, and they glory in their shame, with minds set on earthly things.
On our washing machine there are big, red letters printed on the instructions-for-use decal: DO NOT OVERLOAD MACHINE. The other day it was pointed out to me that they were there because, although I had used the machine hundreds of times, I had grown so used to ignoring the warning that I had become totally blind to it. When I was told, "The warning is right there in big red letters," I responded with, "Really? Are you sure?" And then I went and checked. Sure enough, there was the warning. It seriously disturbed me to think how inured to the warning, how unable to see it, I had become.
Now imagine that prisoner I mentioned above, who has been captured and held in bondage in a concentration camp. Each day at the fence-line of the camp, a man appears, calling to the prisoner to come to him and he will show the prisoner a way of escape. But the prisoner has heard the man before and ignored him. I'm a helpless victim, he tells himself whenever he hears the stranger inviting him to be free. It's not my fault I'm in here and so I'm not responsible for getting out of here. And, anyway, the guards are everywhere, and they are super-powerful. I just can't get free. The prisoner has heard other prisoners saying the same, confirming his thinking, warning him of the awfulness of trying to escape and failing.
And so, day after day, the stranger calls and the prisoner ignores him. Finally, the day arrives when the voice of the stranger is just so much ambient noise, no more significant than the wind blowing, or the birds twittering, or the occasional, nasty laugh from a nearby guard. The prisoner has become so used to tuning out the voice offering freedom, at the same time confirming the inevitability of his bondage, that it now never even occurs to him to think of freedom or to distinguish the still-calling voice from the rest of the random sounds in his environment. For all intents and purposes, the prisoner has become blind and deaf to the stranger, hardened into his life in the concentration camp. Just like I was with the warning on the washing machine. Just like many Christians hardened into sin.
One of the scary things about this hardening effect is that the line between being able to hear "the voice of freedom" and not is unknown. There is no clear demarcation one can see approaching beyond which one will no longer be able even to consider being free of their sinful addiction(s). It just happens; and when it does, there is no going back. Think of Jezebel, or the wicked of Noah's day, or the people of Sodom, or the many who have traveled the "Broad Way," scorning the Gospel, mocking Christ, straight into eternal hell.
And so, God urges us to forsake our sin, to take the "way of escape" NOW. But this necessarily begins with throwing off the lie that, when your sin develops physiological effects, you become a helpless victim of it. You ARE responsible for the sin you've taken up; YOU are responsible for its effects; you are RESPONSIBLE for leaving the sin you've allowed to grow into an addiction. Until you embrace these truths, you simply cannot be free.
But, friend, please believe me, there is a way of escape from all sin, no matter how entrenched in your life it is, no matter the depth of your addiction to it. You can be free.
1 Corinthians 10:13
13 No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man. God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation he will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it.
John 8:36
36 "So if the Son makes you free, you will be free indeed.
Philippians 4:13
13 I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.
Romans 8:13-14
13 For if you live according to the flesh you will die, but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live.
14 For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God.
Romans 6:13
13 Do not present your members to sin as instruments for unrighteousness, but present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life, and your members to God as instruments for righteousness.
1 Peter 5:6
6 Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God so that at the proper time he may exalt you,
2 Corinthians 10:4-5
4 For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh but have divine power to destroy strongholds.
5 We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ,
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