Wherefore if thy hand or thy foot offend
thee, cut them off, and cast them from thee: it
is better for thee to enter into life halt or maimed, rather than having two
hands or two feet to be cast into everlasting fire. (Matt 18:9)
Jesus answered them,
Verily, verily, I say unto you, Whosoever committeth sin is the servant of sin.
(John8:34)
One of
the hardest parts of true repentance is no longer committing that sin. This is
hard because sin has a way of pulling us in. We want to stop but often we need
to do more than just commit to stopping. For many sins we need to change our lives
to keep us from that sin. That’s what this scripture is cautioning us. We are
better off giving up the thing or person that we have in our lives instead of
letting it/them continue to influence us to sin.
While
this is a hard principle to put into action, I know firsthand that it is
essential. For a while I struggled with a pretty serous sin, one that had the
potential to become an addiction. It came close there for a while. It was not
something that I wanted to do; it was often more of a compulsion. I knew I
needed to change. I also knew that to be successful, I would need to be
diligent that it would not become a problem again. I had to change what I listened
to, who I spent time with and what I did in my free time.
Christ
has told us that sinning is bondage but when you are in the middle of it, it
doesn’t seem like it. But it still is. A friend that I care very much about as
struggled with pornography for the better part of a decade. He has tried to end
his addiction many time but each time falls short of recovery. It has ruined
his marriage and has controlled his life. It has entrenched itself in his life
to the point that he has threated both jobs and relationships for its sake. His
need for porn has taken over parts of his life. That sure sounds like bondage
to me.
All sin
does this to some extent. As we sin, we lose control over our lives, actions
and reactions. If we struggle with anger, we lose the ability to react with
care and love. If we struggle with drinking we lose the ability to control our
action while consuming alcohol. If we struggle with judging others, we lose the
ability to see them as children of God.
Sin is
more than just one action. It is a symptom of what is in our hearts. To fight it,
we must change what influences our hearts. If a good friend is encouraging us
to drink or break the law of chastity, we must leave them. If the music that we
love is enticing us into violence and immoral activity, we must change what we
listen to. Only through that can we really be able to successfully change the
habits that we wish to break. We must cling to the Truth and to His words. Living
free from the bondage of our sins will bring us more joy than letting those
influences remain in our lives. It’s hard but worth it.
I know.
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