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PAGE
TITLE:
CBN Daily Devotional
ARTICLE TITLE: The Subtle Deception
of Sin
DATE: N.A
AUTHOR: Candy Arrington
AUTHOR
INFORMATION: Candy
Arrington's publishing credits include The Lookout, Encounter, Focus on the Family, Clubhouse,
The Upper Room, The Writer, and Writer's
Digest. She is coauthor of
Aftershock:
Help, Hope, and Healing in the Wake of Suicide (B & H Publishing
Group) and When Your
Aging Parent Needs Care: Practical Help for This Season of Life
(Harvest House Publishers). Candy and her husband, Jim, live in Spartanburg,
South Carolina, where she writes about the lessons God is teaching her. www.CandyArrington.com
"Why
do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother's eye and pay no attention
to the plank in your own eye" (Matthew 7:3 NIV).
Recently
celebrated cyclist Lance Armstrong admitted he cheated to win. Although it's
been a while since allegations emerged, this was the first time he stopped denying
the charges. I read an account of the interview and then fumed about the bad
example he set for aspiring athletes, annoyed by his seeming lack of remorse.
And
then, as is often His way, the Lord whispered, "You're like Lance
Armstrong."
"Me?
No, I'm not!"
"Remember
high school Latin class?"
"Oh.
That."
It
began innocently, if cheating is ever innocent. There were only four of us in
the class and our teacher was old and partially blind. One day we had a pop
quiz and one of the girls slid her open book into her desk and looked up the
answers. Soon, the others were doing the same. I resisted until a day when I
hadn't studied the vocabulary. I was going to fail the quiz. ... unless.
Everyone
was doing it. Why shouldn't I? Soon, an open book in my desk was commonplace.
Then, prior to the exam, which we all would exempt because of our high,
ill-gotten grades, the one who began the practice of cheating outed us all. I
was embarrassed, ashamed, and mad. Why had she exposed us without warning,
without giving us a chance to stop? I'd been caught, and my sin was out there
for all to know.
"For
you are the children of your father the devil, and you love to do the evil
things he does. He was a murderer from the beginning. He has always hated the
truth, because there is no truth in him. When he lies, it is consistent with
his character; for he is a liar and the father of lies" (John 8:44
NLT).
Satan
is a sly guy. He convinces us sin is fine, as long as we don't get caught. He
whispers, "Go ahead. You're safe. No one will find out." So we reason
there is nothing wrong with your tiny sins—jumping a turnstile, running a red
light, fabricating reasons for incomplete tasks, blaming others for mistakes,
twisting the truth slightly. But don't be deceived by the father of lies. Sin
is sin and all sin is equal. There is no grading scale—no
this-sin-is-less-bad-than-another. Every sin has the same effect—separation
from God.
Aren't
we all like Lance Armstrong? We cheat and expect not to get caught. We look at
others, measure our sin against theirs, and think what I'm doing isn't as bad.
Perhaps the greatest deception of sin is the lies we tell ourselves to justify
our actions and attitudes, and the only way to avoid deceiving ourselves is to
actively work to stay off the slippery slope of lies. You see, sin has a
snowball effect. Once you lie, to yourself or someone else, you usually have to
tell another lie to cover the first one.
My
grandfather was a wise man. One of his life precepts was: "If you tell the
truth, you don't have to remember what you said." In other words, if you
lie, you have to remember the lie so you can make sure you re-create it later.
Most of us aren't smart enough to juggle that many lies for very long. So why
try?
Start
today. Make a conscious effort to change the things in your life that you
consider "tiny" sins. Ask God to help you. One of the first steps in
overcoming sin is admitting what you're doing is sin and that it's wrong. Then
repent, which means to go in the opposite direction, making an intentional
about-face.
While
we may be indignant about the sin of others, we're all just as tarnished as a
cheating multi-medal-winning cyclist. Admit it, and then move forward with
honesty, believing you can change through the power and presence of the Holy
Spirit within. God doesn't expect us to be perfect, but He does expect us to
make an effort to be more like Him.
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