From: Tempted, Tested, True
By: Arnie Cole & Michael Ross
Sin Spin and Perverted Realities
Sarah struggles with sloth. You and I (Mike) may struggle with something else. But we all face temptations, and at one point or another, we’ve all done what Sarah did—make our sin sound not so bad. We tell ourselves why our choices are okay, even if a voice inside tells us they’re wrong. Now of course, we do all need downtime, breaks, and help from our spouses. But we also do need to take care of our responsibilities.
And what we find in Sarah’s justifications is exactly what we would expect: she uses a compelling argument! Who of us tries to convince ourselves that some sin is okay by coming up with a half-baked excuse? Rather, we use all our reasoning skills to sell our plan to the jury in our minds.
What we don’t realize is that when we do this over and over, we start to believe our own justifications and fail to recognize our sin for what it is. That’s why the prophet Jeremiah observes that “[t]he heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it?” (Jer. 17:9). [1] Our hearts are sick with sin, and we so twist things in our minds that we even deceive ourselves about the desperate wickedness in our souls. We don’t want to face the truth.
But the truth is, many good Christians have become calloused to common temptations and comfortable with everyday sins. Let’s take a look at some of these sins and their disguises together.
[1] All references are from the English Standard Version (ESV), unless otherwise noted.
From Tempted, Tested, True
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