The Sins We Like

It’s very clear that we have a serious problem that plagues mankind daily. Many of life’s issues and challenges stem from it and cause the evil and suffered nature of the world. Sin is a terrible problem and could easily be labeled as man’s shared malady. We run to our vices for comfort and relaxation. We go to these things we like when we feel anxiety or wish to be satiated. Some unfortunately also become addictive pleasures and degrade us. They become the sins we like not by happenstance but because we tend to now believe that they are “kinda” ok or even “cool.”

“Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness; that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter!” Isaiah 5:20 (KJV) Then we feel “wise” or just doing things to “live.” Unfortunately, we have now started to become slaves to sin and are not in the truth of God. Pornography & Sex According to webroot.com, 40 million American people regularly visit porn sites. 35% of all internet downloads are related to pornography. 34% of internet users have experienced unwanted exposure to pornographic content through ads, pop-up ads, misdirected links, or emails. Interestingly, one-third of porn viewers are women. In addition, every day, 68 million search queries are related to pornography. This is 25% of the total searches which are generated daily.

So in other words, 1 in 4 people on the entire earth, feel the need to see something sexual daily to go about their day. Pornography and the sex which follows is a serious issue that can become not only addictive but dangerous. The dark web also features forms of sex viewed daily that Christians should never be engaged in such as sex with animals, minors, or the opposite gender.

The Apostle Paul stated: “Flee from sexual immorality. All other sins a person commits are outside the body, but whoever sins sexually, sins against their own body. Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your bodies.” 1 Corinthians 6:18-20 (NIV) Just to be completely clear, sexual sin is any form of sex outside of marriage and can include; masturbation, fornication, adultery, homosexuality, prostitution, pornography, rape, bestiality, or paedophilia. The sad thing is that the first three seem to get a pass in many person’s lives. Why? Because on the books of the laws of many countries only the last five are generally listed as illegal.

Of course, adultery may also become a legal problem if a married or common-law couple chooses to divorce. But otherwise, various forms of sexual sin enter into our lives knowingly and willfully. Jesus took it one step further by asking us to concentrate on the things we incorrectly reflect on daily. “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall not commit adultery.’ But I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart.” Matthew 5:27-28 (NIV) Gambling According to Casino.org, world gambling statistics show that around 26% of the population gamble. That means around 1.6 billion people worldwide gamble and 4.2 billion gamble at least once every year.

Even in Jamaica, a 2007 Jamaica Information Service (JIS) report, mentions a “Jamaica Child and Adolescent Gambling Survey 2007” that shows gambling as a growing problem among young persons between 10 and 19 years of age.

In the article, Executive Director of RISE Life Management Services, Sonita Abrahams was noted to state that 10.7 percent of the survey sample was found to be problem gamblers and an additional 9.6 percent classified as at risk.

“What this translates to is that one out of every five adolescents or basically 20 percent of the population between the ages of 10 and 19 is either a problem gambler or is at risk of becoming one,” Abraham further pointed out. This growing trend is also just as dangerous!

There are many bad things that can and will come from gambling and any addiction that follows including: - Criminality, depending on where the gambling is being done, - Stealing to get money to feed the addiction, - Tension among family members, - Debt to continue gambling, and - Shame and dishonor. It is very obvious that none of these are good. We cannot call something good that eventually brings an evil fruit.

All the other gods The history of Israel was riddled with the nation consistently falling away due to sin and idolatry. The foreign gods of the lands around them began to be revered more than Jehovah and caused them to reap the bad consequences of it.

This curse of following and adoring other things more than the true God can become alluring but always leads to disaster. The sins of idolizing entertainment, money, our career, or even religion is just as terrible as the two spoken of above: sex and gambling. When God proclaimed to Hosea that “my people are destroyed from lack of knowledge” (Hosea 4:6) he followed it up by giving harsh words and analogies between the sin of the land and how the nation had become similar to adulterers because they had forgotten their first true love. “They will eat but not have enough; they will engage in prostitution but not flourish,

because they have deserted the Lord to give themselves to prostitution; old wine and new wine take away their understanding. My people consult a wooden idol, and a diviner’s rod speaks to them. A spirit of prostitution leads them astray; they are unfaithful to their God. They sacrifice on the mountaintops and burn offerings on the hills, under oak, poplar and terebinth, where the shade is pleasant. Therefore your daughters turn to prostitution and your daughters-in-law to adultery.” Hosea 4:10-13 (NIV)

If we serve God, then we have to put Him first and worship Him alone. That means we should start to change and transform our minds to the manner of Christ. That is when we can start to see our breaking away from sin and evil desires, whether we think they are sinful or not.

Slaves To Righteousness The apostle Paul describes it best in saying we should now shift from our previous patterns of sinful behaviours and start being obedient to God. In that way, we will reap righteousness and holiness.

“Don’t you know that when you offer yourselves to someone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one you obey—whether you are slaves to sin, which leads to death, or to obedience, which leads to righteousness? But thanks be to God that, though you used to be slaves to sin, you have come to obey from your heart the pattern of teaching that has now claimed your allegiance. You have been set free from sin and have become slaves to righteousness. I am using an example from everyday life because of your human limitations. Just as you used to offer yourselves as slaves to impurity and to ever-increasing wickedness, so now offer yourselves as slaves to righteousness leading to holiness. When you were slaves to sin, you were free from the control of righteousness. What benefit did you reap at that time from the things you are now ashamed of? Those things result in death! But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the benefit you reap leads to holiness, and the result is eternal life. For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Romans 6:16-23 (NIV)

The issues of life will bring us to the test at all times. Sin creeps in. Let us be courageous enough and trustworthy of God enough to stay faithful to Him. Let us move away from the sins we treasure and find our way back to righteousness and holiness in Jesus.