The Seduction of Sin

This morning I was treated to a series of object lessons on the theme of sin.  As I spent a couple hours mowing, weeding, and trimming, the LORD continued to impress the danger sin poses to our lives.  A characteristic of sin is how seductive it is.  With a tantalizing appearance it beckons, but there is always an incredibly high cost:  separation from God.  For those who refuse to repent and trust in Christ for salvation, this separation will be eternal.

In the corner of our back yard grows a stunted, sad lemon tree.  The sparse, bumpy fruit and wrinkled leaves reveal a sick condition.  But today the tree flourished with colour!  Round, flat insects of vibrant red, orange, green, and yellow clustered on the end of each branch.  These were not bugs I was familiar with, coming from San Diego!  A quick online search revealed these insects as destructive pests called "stinkbugs."  My eyes widened as I read how they leech the sap from the blossoms and tender shoots, destroying new growth.  Had I not known this, I would have allowed the bugs to stay.  Their colours were beautiful but their effects deadly.  So it is with sin:  Eve looked upon the forbidden fruit and saw it was beautiful to behold and very appetizing.  She ate and shared with Adam, her husband.  The world has never been the same.

Our front yard has several plants adorned with the blooms of spring.  One plant in particular has gorgeous flowers of a deep red hue.  I am not familiar with the variety, but it is a type of plant which spreads as a flowering ground cover.  Though it is surrounded by soft soil, for some time the size of the plant has not increased.  Upon closer examination, I found that under the blooms the plant was matted with weeds.  The foreign clover was robbing the beautiful plant of water and restricting its growth.  Again, this is a picture of how sin and the cares of this world can choke out God's influence in our lives.  We are constantly faced with things (perhaps not even bad or wrong in themselves) which compete for our thoughts, money, time, effort, and desires.  Like the Parable of the Sower Jesus told, the cares of the world can choke out the good seed of God's Word and render it fruitless.

As I cleaned up, my wife gave me a call.  She was at the shops picking up some things when she was approached by a man selling a versatile automotive product.  After listening to his spiel, she called me for my opinion on whether she should consider such a purchase.  "Not interested," I said.  I wondered why she had listened to his pitch in the first place.  When she came home she told me the whole story.  "He was really nice, not pushy," she explained.  "And it seemed like quality stuff.  But even with 40% more for free it was $80 for two bottles."  "What?  If you knew it was that expensive why did you even bother calling me?" I asked in surprise.  "He didn't tell me that until the end."  And isn't that always the way with the temptations of the world?  Sin comes in flashy packages and seems to meet our needs.  It comes highly recommended.  But we never hear about the cost until we've been sucked in.  Just like a drug dealer knows it is in his best interest to give free dope so he can hook people, Satan knows how to lure people to their destruction.

To sum up:  sin is often attractive, subversive, deadly, and always has a hefty cost.  Praise God that He has given us His unchanging Word so we might know truth from error.  Thank God that Jesus Christ is the Saviour of the World who has come to break the chains of sin's captives so they might be free indeed.  Let us be sober and watchful, knowing that the enemy of our souls is as a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour.  May we endeavour to keep our lives free from sin that we might maintain close communion with our Heavenly Father and glorify Him always!