•1:12 PM
By: Tom Smith, Wooddale Church of Christ
One of the common questions is when does sin become sin.
In the sexual area, people often ask if as long as there is no intercourse, is it still sin?
Let me use this analogy to clarify this issue.
Just like life begins at conception, sin becomes sin at conception.
The Bible tells us that sin actually starts in our heart. From the heart it progresses to our head. Lastly, it is manifested in our actions.
We don't just fornicate.
The lust starts in our heart, then travels to our brain where it is nurtured, and then is actually committed with our bodies. That is why Jesus said that if you lust in your heart, you have already committed the act.
You can't play games with sin.
You can't try to straddle the fence between committing sin and not committing sin, it just doesn't work that way.
Sin is not something to see how close you can get to, but it is something to stay as far away from as possible.
The best way to stay away from sin is by working on the path sin takes.
As the Bible tells us, it starts in our heart.
David prayed, "create in me a clean heart Lord".
That should be our prayer as well.
We need God to make our heart clean and pure, since that is the place sin is born. He will help you to clean up your heart and make it tender towards the things of God. Sin then goes into our mind where it grows.
We have talked before about Romans 12:1 and the renewing of our minds.
How important it is to watch what we put into our minds each day, and cleaning out some of the old junk that is already there from our past.
We do that by being in the Word of God daily, using it as a spiritual cleansing agent.
Purifying our heart, cleansing our mind is a process.
It doesn't happen overnight.
It happens each day as we pray, read the Bible.
It happens as we are in church feeding our Spirits, serving God.
When our focus is on the Lord, on the things of God, on His Word....it guards our heart from the evils of this world and it keeps our mind clean of sin. How we end up paying and paying and paying for the sins we have committed.
That is why the Lord has tried to show us a better way to live.
He loves us.
He doesn't want to see us suffer and go through so much pain.
This life was never intended to be a time of pain, hurting, and failure.
It was to be a season of joy, peace, and victory as we served and glorified our God.
As you turn away from sin, clean it out of your heart and mind, you find the abundance that the Lord promised us in this life.
It is time to quit playing games with God.
Long before you try to control your physical actions, you have already sinned.
The goal is to root it out of your heart and mind.
Then, your flesh has nothing directing it on a sinful course.
Many of you have been fighting a losing battle of beating sin by keeping your actions under control. Hopefully, you will understand now that it never can happen because the sin has already taken place, and the flesh is simply responding to the sin in your heart and mind.
This then becomes the key.
Rooting sin out of your heart and mind.
Once you understand this fact, then, and only then, will you be able to start getting victory over the sin in your life.
God will strengthen you and help you.
Remember, Jesus Christ died on a cross over 2000 years ago to give you victory.
Start living in that victory today!
