....acts like he or she is sexually pure.
....justifies the sexual sin.
....declares the sexual sin is a need.
....deceives himself or herself into believing that sinning sexually will be a positive benefit.
....makes excuses for his or her sexual sin.
The sinner who does not sexually sin tells himself or herself that his or her heart is good.
This is a noteworthy excerpt from a book I am reading.
It is part of my journey to understand sin. I believe this is valuable to people having trouble recognizing sin as sin. I am one such person.
There is danger in looking to society to make sin relative, or to even call sin, sin. God views all sin equally, with the one exception of adultery. In that case D is an option. But, even in that case God encourages forgiveness if the sinner stops and repents ....so D is not mandatory .
It might ruffle some feathers to read about sin.....mistake, stumble, dreadful decisions, wrong, selfish.....many other terms are more palatable than sin. I believe there is real danger in not calling sin....sin. I see how it has helped me propagate a lie in my own life.
Sin is easily justified in the mind that desires and chooses it.
....made easier to ignore and deny when a lesser word is used to describe it.
A good friend of mine passed away and was buried yesterday. Although I only knew him for 8 years, he clearly and consistently reminded me that justifications to NOT do something worthwhile are easily found.....especially if a task at hand was difficult.
Sin is easy. Using porn is easy. Committing adultery is easy. Stealing something from another is easy. Lots of justifications could be made.
Real relational intimacy takes work. It takes work to attain that which is more quickly and easily stolen.
It took no work for my wife to have and find an affair.
It took no work for me to find and use pornography.
It takes work to honestly provide for yourself and your family.
Learning to R takes work.
God be with us all.
[This message edited by blakesteele at 6:01 AM, March 7th (Friday)]
