Stay off sin’s slippery slope |
James 1:13-15's description of the process of sin is like a slippery slope. Our own desire unites with temptation, conceiving lust. Lust gives birth to sin. That sin starts to grow, ending in death. The icy road has a warning sign at the very beginning, and at various stages along the way. “Treacherous Road.” “Danger!” “Turn back now!” “Sharp curve ahead!” Those who heed the warnings are still alive. Those who don’t are headed for hell. We didn’t know it, but waiting ahead of us, halfway down the hill, was a big turn to the left. I could feel the truck gaining momentum as the slope became sharper. It was too late. There was nothing we could do but hold on and try to ride it out. In Romans 6 Paul warns that if we yield our body to sin, the result will be ever-increasing wickedness until finally, we slam into death. But he says that this “slip-sliding away” is not inevitable. Christ redeemed us! Our union with His death and resurrection sets us free from slavery to sin. “Sin shall not be your master,” he promises, “because you are not under law but under grace!” (Rom. 6:14). We can get onto a different road altogether, a road that is going up, not down. “Yield the members of your body to righteousness,” Paul tells us, “leading to holiness, and ending in eternal life.” What happened at the big turn? We fish-tailed, but didn’t go off the road, finally sliding to a stop. It was scary. I promised myself and my wife we would never get on such a road again. Take my advice: Stay off the slippery slope of sin. The so-called thrill isn’t worth the risk. |
| —Steve Singleton DeeperStudy.com |
Want to go deeper?When Paul says "sin will not be your master, he is employing that Greek verb kurieuō ("to have power over, to rule over"), which is closely related to the Greek noun for "Lord," kurios. God's plan is for Jesus Christ to be our master, not sin. The verse has a familiar ring to it for those who know the Old Testament. It echoes a grandfather's warning to his grandson, as recorded in Genesis 4:7: "But if you do not do what is right, sin is crouching at your door; it desires to have you, but you must master it." Someone who knows that context might obeject, "Wait a minute! What do you mean a grandfather's warning to his grandson. That is God speaking to Cain." Exactly! God is the closest thing Cain has to a grandfather, because in a sense He was father to Cain's father Adam. And in the Septuagint, the ancient Greek translation of the Hebrew text of Genesis 4:7, the Greek verb archō occurs, which means "to master, to rule over," the word behind the "arch" in "monarch," "patriarch," and "oligarchy," etc., and a synonym of our Romans 6:14 verb, kurieuō. Here's the bottom line: either sin masters us or we, by God's grace, refuse to let it take over our lives and learn how to master it. We cannot afford to start down the slippery slope. We must shout enough is enough is enough as soon as possible, ideally from the very beginning. God's grace, delivered to us through Jesus Christ, and made operational in us by the Holy Spirit, can break the hold sin has over us, release us from its guilt, and empower us to live a holy life.
Stephen Strang. Old Man, New Man (2000). This book addresses the deeply personal habits that can make or break a man--financial stress, marital tension, sexual temptation and the challenge of forming lifelong relationships--and it is filled with compelling stories and God's transforming response. Recommended for online reading: James Stuart. "Christ and the Believer," chapter 11 (488-554) in his Principles of Christianity (1888). See especially 499-500 |
“Closed for the Winter,” the sign said, but it was too late. The road was sloping down the hill, and just beneath the coating of snow were two inches of ice. I braked so my wife and I could turn around, but we just slid farther and farther down the hill. I put the gear-shift in park; we were still sliding. I took it out of park and steered, riding the brake, hoping we could make it to the bottom of the hill without sliding off the road.