HOW TO FIGHT SIN

Little Round Top

I know, the title is somewhat boring. Who wants to read a post about fighting sin? We all know its bad and ugly. We all want to stop sinning and no one needs to remind us of the next method for its removal. And besides, of all the wonderful mountain vistas in the Christian world who wants to spend more time on that lonely hill surrounded by death? Isn’t there a better place to encourage one another than the cemetery? The fact is that this ‘lonely hill’ called sin is the place where Satan buries his victims. Though going there may not be a most enjoyable journey it is a most needful one. Avoiding death is not a fun topic but one that everyone needs to consider often. Of course nothing new can be said about the horrors of sin. James says everything that needs to be said on the topic in his first chapter. Sin is birthed when we are drawn away from what is good and attach ourselves to evil. This union produces sin and when that sin grows up it lands us on that lonely hill called death. The question we all must wrestle with is not whether or not sin is horrible, but how to we thwart its growth that leads to death. In other words, in what way can the Christian expect to find victory over sin? Early in the battle of Gettysburg, Union General Gouverneur Warren was walking on patrol and he noticed a little hill that was not defended. Should the enemy scale that hill, Warren thought, the entire Union line would be compromised. He immediately called up troops to defend the Little Round Top and the victory was ultimately realized. Apply that to the Christian life. What crucial hill in human experience must be taken in order to find success in the fight against sin? Quite often we pick the wrong place to fight it and we end up losing. In my experience I have often fought sin at the point of my will. That is, I feel the temptation and begin to cry aloud, “I’ll try not to do it.” Or in its other form I say, “I should do this and I’ll try hard to do it.” Most of the time I find my enticement to sin is too great at this point and I fail. At the point of resolve I am too far into the battle and have lost too many troops to expect to achieve victory. If you doubt this, go ahead and analyze your own fight against sin and see if a mere steeling of the will produces obedience. I think you will find in most cases that it will not. The reason for this lies in the nature of sin. As with everything else in life, sin begins in the mind. We esteem something precious or necessary or beneficial before having any relationship to it. We ‘think’ about things before having any emotions toward them. In this way the mind actually feeds our affections. God has made us moral creatures who always move toward what we perceive is good. Once the mind esteems something to be good the affections willingly follow. And when the affections feel the goodness of something, what does the will do but move in its direction? If this paradigm is correct then apply it to sin. When sin is esteemed good in the mind our emotions obediently flow toward it. And it is not long before one chooses to do evil. So to attack at the point of the choice is futile. Rather we must back up to the source and attack sin where it began, in the mind. How do we do this? The only way to move someone away from an object that is esteemed good is to draw their mind to something they esteem better. You see where I am going. The fight against sin comes when we esteem something more precious than the thing that first enticed us. That more precious thing is God. This process is neither easy nor automatic. The Christian, though enlightened by the Holy Spirit, does not always see God to be the ultimate good. When the eyes are turned downward the Christian can easily find attraction to worldly things. Thus the battle against sin starts in the battle of the mind. It starts when one meditates on God and all the reasons why God is the ultimate prize. As I struggle with sin in my own life I find three considerations that can be helpful to ward off sin. First, it is important to admit that sin is enticing. It not only appears lovely, it feels lovely. It can offer gratification in life, true gratification. Sin is not a mirage that seems to offer pleasure. No, sin does offer pleasure, real pleasure. In the past I have tried to think of sin as vomit lying on the ground while God is like a well-prepared steak and shrimp dinner. That doesn’t work. Why? Because sin does not look like vomit to me. It looks like a steak and shrimp dinner. That’s what makes it so dangerous. It has real cash value in the marketplace of pleasure. Second, it is important to consider that sin is deceptive. It is pleasurable for the moment, but it always hides a whole bunch of other nasty things that you can’t see at first, things that will destroy you. The writer of Hebrews warns his readers not be duped by “the deceitfulness of sin” (Hebrews 3:13). Thirdly, I try to set my mind on the truth that God’s pleasures are not only for the now but are infinite and boundless. Sin, on the other hand, can only offer us an initial jolt of pleasure but never more than that. The joys you experience when you first sin are the best it can offer. Sin never tastes better than the first bite. God’s meal never grows old but tastes better and better as you consume it. Thinking on these three things should help us to fight sin that is born in our mind. So what do I do to fight sin? Let’s think through our response according to the three points given above. First, admit that the pleasure of sin is not phony. There is something about sin that is real and attractive. The devil is not so stupid as to give me a hypothetical pleasure. Rather, Satan, who rules this world, is able to marshal whatever pleasure necessary in order to trap me. And since the pleasure is real, simply acting as if it is not real can’t help you. Knowing we cannot eliminate the reality of sin’s pleasure, we must then fight it on the only field possible. We must nurture a deeper pleasure in knowing God. This process is strengthened by applying oneself to the means of God’s grace. One of those means is to meditate on the experiences one has had with God in the past. Often I find myself saying, “I remember when I was in spiritual ecstasy, when God came and gave me pleasures that exceeded anything I ever experienced on earth. And I want that, not the temporary pleasures of sin.” To fight sin is to apply yourself to anything that will cause you to draw nigh to God. Second, when you are tempted consider the deceitfulness of sin, walk your mind through its inevitable trajectory. Think to yourself; “Where will this sin lead if I commit it? What hidden poison lies on the dark side of sin?” In other words engage your mind in every direction and think of the horror that lies ahead if the pathway to sin is chosen. Third, and perhaps most importantly, consider that the pleasures of sin, which are real, are finite, fleeting and failing. Remember that the pleasure you experience at the first is the best it will get. Yes, there is a steak dinner offered, but vomit lies behind it. On the other hand consider that God gives ‘pleasures evermore.’ Those pleasures are infinite. We never tire of God because He keeps giving us fresh mercies every morning. The depth of God and His pleasures have no end. The little steak dinner the devil offers tastes good for 20 minutes and then it’s over. But every time we eat at God’s table it gets better and better. Notice that in all of these ‘remedies’ the fight begins in the mind. And what is the food for the mind? Truth. So the question is, “Do we receive truth so that it can seep in every cubbyhole of our lives?” We receive truth by meditating on it, by chewing on it, and by applying it to our lives at every angle. The fight against temptation and sin begins when we consider these three things. When we consider the real pleasures God has to offer. When we consider how deceitful sin is and how rewarding God is. And when we consider the infinite beauty of God’s righteousness compared to the brief ecstasy of sin. If we can learn to think this way then when that paltry steak dinner called sin presents itself you will say, “No thank you, I have a dinner over yonder that offers me much, much more.” In this way you will be on the road to killing the killer.