“No one who lives in him keeps on sinning. No one who continues to sin has either seen him or known him.”
1 John 3:6
Sin becomes a crime, not against law but against love; it means not breaking God’s law so much as not breaking God’s heart.*
-William Barclay
What hurts me most about sin is not that it breaks God’s law but that it breaks His heart. Sin is not weakness or a disease. Sin is a mockery of His mercy and a disdain of His love. Sin grieves God.
That’s why our battle against even minor sins is always major. Our sin is an offense to God. The battle may mean putting a lid on backbiting gossip. No more flirting with your best friend’s spouse. No more saying one thing to your Christian friends and quite another to your co-workers on the job. It may mean tackling subtle sins — curbing your appetite, reining in your daydreams, and ceasing to make copies of disks that say, “Unauthorized reproduction prohibited.”
Does tackling small sins seem too minor? If so, remember that any sin is a choice to fellowship with the Devil. That’s why once the Spirit convicts you of some sin…the minor becomes major.
Lord Jesus, I want to delight You. I no longer desire to give my sin a smooth-sounding name and I turn from doing things that displease You. Give me power to obey.
Blessings,
Joni and Friends
*Draper, Edythe, Draper’s Book of Quotations for the Christian World, Tyndale House Publishing, Wheaton, Illinois, 1992, p. 568
