14But each one is tempted when he is drawn away by his own desires and enticed.15Then, when desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, brings forth death. James 1:14-15 (NKJV)
My daughter has begun to test her limits. When I tell her not to touch something she will inch as close as she can without touching it. Often enough the scenario ends with her getting into trouble; when you get that close to the line, you are bound to give in to the temptation.
Most of the time our sins start in the same way; we do not plan on sinning. We know that sin is pleasurable (howbeit for a season; Heb. 11:25 ); so we get as close to it as we can in an attempt to reap part of its pleasure without the punishment. After all as long as we do not cross the line, we have not really done wrong. Right? We start to tease the line and before we know it we have crossed it; we usually end up neck deep in the sin by the time the pleasure starts to wear off and guilt and shame start to shine through.
Most people do not plan on having an affair; it usually starts with something innocent and progresses closer and closer to the line, until in the heat of passion: sin rears its ugly face as the line is crossed. We err when we believe we are strong enough to get face-to-face with sin’s power of temptation, and then turn away. We are a weak and we have within us a sin nature; we must stray as far as we can from sin, or we will certainly be snared by its trap.
How much sin could we avoid if we simply stopped trying to edge closer to the line? What if when we saw sin coming, we ran the other way? We must realize that sin is not a toy or a game; sin is devastating and destructive. Sin when fully matured will always bring forth one thing: death.
Will you stop teasing the line of sin? Will you admit you are to weak to victoriously face sin? Will you instead retreat to the arms of Christ? We should never try to overcome temptation, we should run from it!
