The beauty of good, and the ugliness of evil (Part 2)

“See to it, brothers and sisters, that none of you has a sinful, unbelieving heart that turns away from the living God.  But encourage one another daily, as long as it is called ‘Today,’ so that none of you may be hardened by sin's deceitfulness.” Hebrews 3:12-13 NIV

“The woman said, ‘The serpent deceived me, and I ate.’”  Genesis 3:13b.

Sin is deceitful.  The very first sin was based on a deception.

Sin is the perversion of good.  In other words, sinners try to get something good in the wrong way or for the wrong reason.

For example, a thief isn’t trying to steal something because it will cause him displeasure.  Whether it’s a car, money, or a cell phone, she wants something good.  This desire for a good object is not bad, by definition.  But the thief should ask for what he wants, or work for what she wants. 

Sin’s deception is rationalization:  Focusing on the good reason behind the sin, instead of the truth-- God’s will.

We all know what this is like.

For example:  We break a promise.  Instead of admitting this to the person we hurt, we focus on the good reasons we broke our promise.  We assume that if we break a promise for a good reason, we didn’t really lie.

When do we simply say, “I broke my promise.  I have no excuse.  Will you please forgive me?”

Don’t we get angry if it is suggested that we have no excuse?

This anger is a deception of sin.  It is a perversion of justice.

Anger’s purpose is to seek God’s justice, not to rationalize our sin.

To resist the deceitfulness of sin is simple:  Focus only on God’s will!

If Eve focused exclusively on God’s will, and not the serpent’s words, she would not have been deceived.  Instead, she rationalized her disobedience with good reasons:

The forbidden fruit looked good.
It was edible.
It could make her wise.

Each thought was good, right?

But God commanded her not to eat from that tree.  Period.  It was His tree in His garden.  She existed for Him, not herself.  Not to mention she admitted to the serpent that she could eat from all of the other trees in the garden except this one! 

Focus only on God’s will for His glory.  If we do this, we won’t yield to sin’s deception or good’s perversion.

Click here for part 3...