By SuperManu via Wikimedia Commons

Psalm 51:1-3 Have mercy upon me, O God, According to Your lovingkindness; According to the multitude of Your tender mercies, Blot out my transgressions. wash me thouroughly from my iniquity, And cleanse me from my sin. For I acknowledge my transgressions, And my sin is always before me…

But sin, where is thy sting? 

Life feels sometimes like it’s cluttered with garbage, and we all overabundantly partake, as though we don’t believe there will be any moral consequence to our actions. It’s reminiscent of Jeremiah 16, and the words he was to take to Israel.

“And it shall be, when you show this people all these words, and they say to you, ‘Why has the Lord pronounced all this great disaster against us? Or what is our iniquity? Or what is our sin that we have committed against the Lord our God?’ then you shall say to them, ‘Because your fathers have forsaken Me,’ says the Lord; ‘they have walked after other gods and have served them and worshiped them, and have forsaken Me and not kept My law. And you have done worse than your fathers, for behold, each one follows the dictates of his own evil heart, so that no one listens to Me.

Did you notice that? Each follows the dictates of his own evil heart? Basically, each embraces the garbage Satan has left lying around for us, because we WANT TO.

Garbage on television–people living spontaneously, without inhibition, unapologetically embracing selfishness, greed, sexual immorality, and any number of things God would find atrocious. And yet, many Christians watch it. Some even emulate their behaviors. Sin, where is thy sting?

Garbage in our social circles–gossip, complaining, spewing hate, villainizing anyone who has an opposing opinion. To many outside the body of Christ, this is how they perceive the face of Christianity. Sin, where is thy sting?

Garbage amongst young people, both teens and young adults–cursing because they can, defiance, conceit, sass, rudeness. Some go into their thirties and beyond, deeming themselves the center of their own universe. Who is teaching them to sacrifice self for the greater good? Who is teaching them that all of our actions are related, and as John Donne said, that no man is an island? Perhaps no one is teaching them, because many adults are just as guilty. Our selfish indulgence is destructive to all of humanity. Sin, where is thy sting?

Sin is poison. It’s a poison we voluntarily drink. Because we WANT TO.

Christian people, what’s going on here? Have we no willpower anymore? When the Bible says deny self, we make half-hearted attempts and give an apathetic bemoaning of our lack of success? What once pierced our hearts has become a tiny pang, that soon we may not feel at all.

We are not going to change the world until we start embracing change in ourselves. I pray that we can all once more feel the deep, painful sting of sin.

Many blessings, and thanks for reading,

Monica

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