sin | Daily Encouragement | Page 26

Tag Archives: sin

Leave a comment

Uncategorized

“So then, if we do not do the good we know we should do, we are guilty of sin.” (James 4:17, Good News Translation)

You will not find a more simple, direct, or pure definition of sin than what is written in today’s scripture verse.

This definition does not cover all sin, but it does address what we refer to as “sins of omission”: Knowing but not doing. Following this principle, it might also be said that we sin when we have but do not share what we have with others.

James’ letter is, I think, the most practical book in the New Testament. It addresses the common issues of our life as disciples of Jesus, and is well worth the 15 minutes or so it would take a slow reader (like myself) to cover its five, short, chapters. Are you up for it?

James reminds us that we need not sin. – Luther

Tagged obedience, sin, the book of James

Leave a comment

Uncategorized

“The angel of the LORD went up from Gilgal to Bokim and said, ‘I brought you up out of Egypt and led you into the land I swore to give to your ancestors. I said, ‘I will never break my covenant with you, and you shall not make a covenant with the people of this land, but you shall break down their altars.’ Yet you have disobeyed me. Why have you done this?” (Judges 2:1-2, NIV)

Resonant in this scripture — which recounts the disobedience of the Children of Israel when they did not utterly subdue the inhabitants of the Promised Land, but allowed them to coexist with them in the land, albeit as “servants” or “slaves” — is the peril of allowing anything that is ungodly to inhabit our lives.

The problem with allowing any ungodly thought or deed to persist in one’s life — even in a small, seemingly insignificant way — is that after a while the “slave” becomes the master; and the “servant” becomes the one that is served.

In the case of the Children of Israel, it wasn’t too very long before they were worshiping at the pagan altars and adopting forbidden practices. I am sure that their chosen courses of action seemed enlightened at the time, but the outcome of disobedience to God is always the same: Our own (eventual) destruction.

Today, choose life. Choose God. None of us shall ever find peace by considering disobedience to God; or by accommodating sinful thoughts. – Luther

Tagged idolatry, obedience, sin, the book of Judges

Leave a comment

Uncategorized

“For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Romans 6:23, NKJV)

Perhaps the only state worse than doing wrong is being wrong.

We need to guard against becoming comfortable with a lifestyle that is contrary to God’s will and way. This is what the Bible calls “sin.”

Oswald Chambers eloquently describes the peril of a conscience that is no longer troubled by wrong-doing: “One of the penalties of sin is our acceptance of it. It is not only God who punishes for sin, but sin establishes itself in the sinner and takes its toll. No struggling or praying will enable you to stop doing certain things, and the penalty of sin is that you gradually get used to it, until you finally come to the place where you no longer even realize that it is sin.”

Stay close to God through prayer, obedience, and the study of the holy scriptures, and you will have a heart that is sensitive to what pleases God — and to what does not please God. This is the surest and the straightest path to life, peace, and joy. – Luther

Tagged obedience, Oswald Chambers, sin, the book of Romans