Straight Thinking 102967 the Deceitfulness of Sin
Straight Thinking
102967
THE DECEITFULNESS OF SIN
Sunday. Do you think of yourself as sinful? Like most people, you probably feel you are pretty decent since so many people you know are worse than you are. As a result, you may associate sin with extreme evil in others, but the slightest sin in your life is enough to classify you as a sinner too. As long as you suppose you’re good, you are ensnared in sin’s trap of deceit. (Read 1 John 3:4; 1:8; James 2:1-11.)
Monday. Time can heal a broken heart, but sin uses time deceitfully to harden the heart. Did you feel a little uneasy in the crowd at your first big-league game? Weren’t you sickened by the stench of beer and the smell of cigarette smoke that rose slowly from the stadium that evening? Do you still feel uneasy, or have you gotten used to it now? (Read Ephesians 4:17-24.)
Tuesday. “Once won’t hurst” is sin’s advertisement; “no obligation” is its sales pitch. One glass at a friendly party might seem harmless enough—over a whole lifetime, but that’s not the full story. Yielding to sin is like eating potato chips; you can’t take just one. From a glass to a gallon, from once to always is sin’s plan of damnation. (Read James 1:14-16.)
Wednesday. “But it’s fun.” It may be; that’s the way it is with sin. Sinners have fun sinning or they wouldn’t sin. But there is a difference between fun and joy. Fun is for a while; joy lasts forever. That’s why we call sin “fun” and righteousness “joy”; sin can’t keep its promises—very long. (Read Hebrews 11:24-25.)
Thursday. Another of sin’s deceitful tactics is to cast reflections at the motives of truth. Sin wants us to believe that Christianity is a “don’t-do” way of living, that we forfeit our freedom when we defer to Christ’s authority, and that the preacher’s hope in persuading us to attend church is to keep up the attendance when he preaches, and so on and on. (Read Genesis 3:1-9.)
Friday. In the younger set and on up, the spirit of our time hesitates to call things black or white. It assigns them to a “gray area” between virtue and vice. Sin would have us think there is a vast “no man’s land” between good and bad; but, when we cross the border from good, we’re in bad. (Read 1 John 5:17a.)
Saturday. Falsehood specializes in half-truth as its master method of deceit. Satan emphasizes God’s love for all to soothe the conscience of those who serve Christ off and on, who worship him a little, and are faithful for a while. Sin avoids the fact of God’s justice because God’s justice does not allow him to save those who should be destroyed. (Read Luke 3:8-9, 16-17.)
Virgil Warren, Straight, October 29, 1967, p11 christir.org