“I’ve become comfortable with a certain level of sin in my life.”- Church lay leader
In Chapter 3 (“The Enemy of Holiness”) of Holiness, Nancy DeMoss Wolgemuth relates the story of Timothy Treadwell, an avid outdoorsman and “bear specialist.” For more than twelve summers, Timothy lived peacefully, alone, and without weapons among Alaskan grizzlies. Also, he described the bears as mostly harmless “party animals.”
However, on 6 October 2003, an air taxi pilot found Tim’s body after a grizzly bear mauled him. That bear reverted to its true nature.
Most noteworthy, we face a far more deadly beast- sin. So, Nancy asks, what makes us think we can approach the deadly beast of sin and survive? Perhaps we think like Timothy, who named the bears and often got close enough to touch them. Subconsciously, we categorize certain sins “mostly harmless.” Especially, Nancy adds, if we’ve played with them for years and never suffered any injury.
Therefore, Nancy emphasizes, to gain a proper perspective on sin, we must take a serious look at the nature of sin. First, the author notes, the primary Hebrew word for sin means “to miss the mark.” We fail to measure up to God’s standard or expectations. Also, sin’s intensely personal, with profound relational implications. Most of all, the heinous and grievous nature of sin reveals itself when we oppose God.
In Scripture, God often uses imagery related to spousal unfaithfulness and sexual sin to denote sin’s serious nature. Such passages, Nancy notes, give us an inkling of what we’re doing to Christ, our heavenly Husband. We can’t persist in “sleeping” with our sin while claiming to be committed to our relationship with Christ.
In conclusion, we must stamp out our sin and put it to death- not tame it or control it. As a result, Nancy next talks about four consequences of sin.
Today’s question: Do you feel at ease with a certain level of sin in your life? Please share.
Tomorrow’s blog: “Every unconfessed sin”
