Pet Sins

This is the message we have heard from him and declare to you: God is light; in him there is no darkness at all. If we claim to have fellowship with him and yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not live out the truth. But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin. 

I John 1:5-7

There once was a little boy who loved snakes. A pet snake was all he wanted for his birthday. His parents were a bit squeamish but they acquiesced and got him a snake which the pet store said was a ball python. The little boy couldn’t have been happier. He loved and cared for his snake and it grew to be rather large, over 7 feet long in fact. And then one day the snake stopped eating. The boy tried everything to get the snake to eat, but nothing worked. So after a time he took it to the vet. 

The vet listened carefully as the boy explained the situation. Then he asked the boy some questions. He asked whether the snake ever slept by him at night. The boy replied that it did. Then the vet asked if it ever snuggled close to him and stretched itself out alongside his body or wrapped itself around him. The boy replied, “Yes he’s been doing it every day. That’s how I know he loves me and it makes me so sad that I can’t help him feel better.”

Then the vet said something shocking. “Young man, this is not a ball python but a reticulated python which grows to be much larger and is much more dangerous. And sadly this snake doesn’t love you and he is not sick. He is preparing to eat you. He’s been sizing you up every day so he knows if he has grown large enough to swallow you yet. And he has stopped eating so he has enough room to digest you."

***

While this story is an urban legend it serves as a powerful metaphor for the way Christians relate to habitual sins in our lives. Most believers have a time of sanctification after we first get saved during which we put off sin and begin to live a new life. But over time, many believers get tired of fighting against the flesh every day and they end up with several stubborn sins that they fail to rid their lives of completely. Eventually we give up hope of ever being free of these sins. We stop fighting against them. We accept them and start to think of them less as sins and more as character flaws or bad habits. Whether it's arrogance, selfishness, materialism, anger issues, sexual  immorality, lust, or slander; eventually we grow comfortable with the idea that these few sins will be with us for the rest of our lives. 

The scary truth is that we have gotten so used to these sins as a part of our lives that we’ve forgotten how dangerous they are. These sins are dangerous! And Satan wants to use them to damage the reputation of Christ, steal our joy, hurt our relationship with God, and ruin our witness. 

In the passage above, Scripture tells us that those who walk in darkness can’t be walking with the God who is Light. No matter what a person says. If they claim to be a Christian but are walking in darkness then they are a liar. Warren Wiersbe says it this way, “darkness and light cannot exist in the same place.”

So don’t get comfortable with your sin. Fight against it! I am not advocating perfectionism. I will never be rid of my sin nature completely on this side of Heaven. Which means that I will never be completely free from all sin. But that doesn’t mean that it’s okay for me to willingly walk in sin every day and impose on God’s grace. That doesn’t mean that it’s okay for me to continue to live enslaved to certain sins and give up hope that I will ever beat them. 

Refuse to be enslaved to a sin that Jesus died to rescue you from! Fight against the sin that remains in you. Reject the lie that Jesus can’t set you free from some particular sin. And seek to become more like Christ each and every day.