The Danger of Sin and the Power of Our Self-Deception

Thoughts Today…

Been thinking today about the danger involved in sinning. Perhaps an aspect we don’t all consider.  I am usually intrigued by movies in which someone who is just a “regular” guy or gal, proceeds in behavior which is what we would all consider “wrong”, but generally speaking the person is just being selfish and unwise, not intending for anyone to get “hurt” – and then, in keeping with such a plot, lives end up lost, or at least irreversible damage is done far beyond what regular guy or gal could have fathomed, and now consequences are left for all.  I love these movies for several reasons;

a.  It shows a true view of the consequences of our sin.  No matter how much we may feel we are just selfishly motivated with no intention to “really” hurt any other person, the nature of sin is that its effects spread as disease through our lives, spilling over from generation to generation in many cases.   I can guarantee you, before I speak on a more personal level about my own life, there is many a child who has told a lie, many a teenager who has taken a drug, many an adult who has cheated on his or her taxes that had consequences which surprised them, either by the people they hurt or the legacy they left through these “harmless” acts.

b.  In watching the film, I get to “experience” the life lesson, without having to actually live it. This is one of the beautiful things I think we can forget as well about the Scriptures.  We can read (and should) what other Godly men and women did in their weakest moments of failure, and we can learn from these things before we foolishly replicate it.

c.  It gives a really great redeeming value to the movies.  Rather than just watching senseless violence, or crime, you can actually come away refreshed to go and do what God would have you do, instead of just flooding your mind with glorified sin – there is a lesson involved.

Now, I don’t want to completely eliminate the element of knowing what our sin will do (as best we can), and doing it anyway.   I would refer to what my husband would call sin-induced stupidity.  It makes us stupid.  It makes us almost insane.  The drive to do whatever it is we’re wanting in the moment can be so strong, that though we know (in the back of our minds comes the “still, small voice” reminding us) full-well what some of the consequences may be, we proceed in our stupidity, fulfilling the desires of the flesh, rather than walking in the Spirit.

I encounter this almost on a daily basis with my children.  They have upset me for whatever reason, are grating on my nerves, or are just being their cute little selves and I’m too frustrated to appreciate it, and so, here it comes – the urge to yell.  If I fight the urge, I have beautiful smiling faces looking at me, ready to learn and absorb everything I have to tell them, if I decide to give in to the urge, I have little ones, who instead of getting the tender, gentle, nurturing their fragile hearts so desperately need, are scarred, downcast, and begin feeling like a burden rather than a delight.  But oftentimes, it is the pondering of this dangerous cycle before I’m even in the situation that affords the most benefit.  Because, after all, these urges in our flesh are just that – urges.  They are not the cute little angels dancing on our shoulder trying to help us decide – in our flesh, it is done.  Decided.  Finished.  Only the power of Christ can then overcome it.

Verses that came to mind -

Genesis 4

¹ Now Adam knew Eve his wife, and she conceived and bore Cain, and said, “I have acquired a man from the LORD.” ² Then she bore again, this time his brother Abel. Now Abel was a keeper of sheep, but Cain was a tiller of the ground. ³ And in the process of time it came to pass that Cain brought an offering of the fruit of the ground to the LORD. ⁴ Abel also brought of the firstborn of his flock and of their fat. And the LORD respected Abel and his offering, ⁵ but He did not respect Cain and his offering. And Cain was very angry, and his countenance fell.
⁶ So the LORD said to Cain, “Why are you angry? And why has your countenance fallen? ⁷ If you do well, will you not be accepted? And if you do not do well, sin lies at the door. And its desire is for you, but you should rule over it.”
⁸ Now Cain talked with Abel his brother;^[a] and it came to pass, when they were in the field, that Cain rose up against Abel his brother and killed him.
⁹ Then the LORD said to Cain, “Where is Abel your brother?”
He said, “I do not know. Am I my brother’s keeper?”
¹⁰ And He said, “What have you done? The voice of your brother’s blood cries out to Me from the ground. ¹¹ So now you are cursed from the earth, which has opened its mouth to receive your brother’s blood from your hand. ¹² When you till the ground, it shall no longer yield its strength to you. A fugitive and a vagabond you shall be on the earth.”

Anger. How deadly a sin!  How many a person has died because another person became enraged with them, and killed them. Has the power to corrupt children, and make them aggressive and without patience.  Can damage hearts irrevocably when things said are not so easily unsaid, nor explained away when the storm has settled.  Can eat the person enraged, on the inside, and steal their joy.

Pride. The things we will do to save our face in front of others!  Similarly as with anger, this produces a desire to be in control and to show oneself to be superior and unable to be “hurt”.  Instead of taking insults, we throw them back.  Instead of letting others laugh at us, we laugh at them.  This sin affects so much of what we say and do.  Also, can easily lead to death.

These are just a couple of sins that can be named, but certainly,we should become familiar more than we are with the sins of the flesh listed in Scripture, and remind ourselves what each one of those can lead to, and how so very often, they can even lead to death.

The sexual lust we have can destroy our marriages and our children, cause them to not have us as Godly examples in their lives which can affect our legacy and generations to come.  The inability we have (I so often) to receive instruction when others try to steer us away from sin (just another way pride affects us) can lead us down paths we would never want to go.  We can find ourselves destroying the very foundation we are living on by the simplest things.   What are we building our house on?   Just thinking of this today, in my own life most importantly, and in people I have known and know.  Let us be on guard, friends.  Let us not think so lightly as we do of these things.  David killed Uriah, Cain killed Abel, and while we think we are so far beyond these kinds of consequences, I dare say we are closer than we think.  I think often of the verse in Proverbs, where the adulterous man “did not know it would cost him his life“.  There is a deep, deep power in self-deception.  By it, many a good man and woman has fallen into sins that they previously would have been embarrassed to name in public.  By justifying behavior which can in no wise be justified, and by doing it for so long that we forget what the Scripture even said about it, we deceive ourselves into thinking it was acceptable in the first place.  Today, I ask Christ to help me remember what it does to me, to others…to generations.

~R

P.S.  A few of my favorite movies where “regular” guys and gals end up in a real mess, or where people know they are doing wrong but think they will “get away with it” and it ends up quite differently – Changing Lanes, A Simple Plan, Sleepers, Atonement, Fargo, American Beauty, Changeling (Angelina Jolie), Unfaithful. (Use your own discretion, after all, these are movies that depict sin and its results.)