It has been said that if you stand in front of a barber shop, before long you will end up with a hair cut. The same can be said about sin. The more we hang around it, the more enticing it becomes. But unlike sin, the barber does not come looking for you. Sin has a way of seeking the believer out. Imagine walking home on a dark night, and you hear footsteps behind you. Your heart begins to race because you know that you are about to be attacked. So what are we to do when sin calls out for us? How are we as Christians supposed to react?
"My son, if sinners entice you, do not consent." Proverbs 1:10, Amplified
The easiest way to resist is to not do. Everyday we are approached for different reasons. The best example is the television. Commercials target a specific demographic to entice them into purchasing a product, whether it be insurance, a new car, food. Do we then go and do whatever the commercial is suggesting simply because it claimed to offer better than anyone else could. No. Why can we not then have the same attitude toward sin? There is one reason. It is a heart issue. "Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor stands in the path of sinners, nor sits in the seat of the scornful; but his delight is in the Law of the Lord. And in His Law he meditates day and night." (Psalm 1:1-2, NKJV) It is about focus and a singularity of faith.
"If they say, 'Come with us, let us lie in wait to shed blood, let us ambush the innocent without cause [and show that his piety is in vain]; let us swallow the up alive as does Sheol [the place of the dead], and whole, as those who go down into the pit [of the dead]; we shall find and take all precious goods [when our victims are put out of the way], we shall fill our houses with plunder; Throw in your lot among us [they insisted], and be a sworn brother and comrade; let us all have one purse in common.'" Proverbs 1:11-14, Amplified
Sin is vicious. Sin is out to get what sin wants. Sin will use you to avail its own cause. Why is it then that at some points in our lives we cannot see sin as it really is. If we are not planted and dedicated to the Lord then our loyalty and focus and roots are somewhere else. A tree or bush will die if it is not planted. Jesus spoke about different kinds of soil, and only one out of four was the good soil. Are you dying as a Christian; have you fallen by the wayside so that crows may come and whisk you away, are you in the rocky soil and shoot us quickly only to die because you have no root, or are you among the thorns and thistles being choked out? The only good soil is Jesus. If we are in any of the other soils, then we will never see sin for what it truly is.
"My son, do not walk in the way with them, restrain your foot from their path; for their feet run to do evil, and they make haste to shed blood." Proverbs 1:15-16, Amplified
There is nothing subtle about sin. Solomon encourages his son not to walk with them, because they run. Have you ever tried to walk in a mob that is running. It is impossible. you will be knocked over and trampled underfoot, so you must maintain the speed of the masses to ensure your life, but in reality you only hasten death.
"For in vain is the net spread in the sight of any bird; but [when these men set a trap for others] they are really waiting for their own blood, they set an ambush for their own lives. So are the ways of everyone who is greedy for gain; such [greed for plunder] takes away the life of its possessors." Proverbs 1:17-19, Amplified
"A bird will instinctively avoid a visibly spread net." (Jamieson, Fausset and Brown) Sin is that visibly spread net, instinctively we too should avoid that net. Inevitably sin will destroy whomever it is using at the time. When the net is spread to trap, the trapper is the true victim. Sin is a very personal product of separation from God. No one else is going to Hell because of your sins, only you will go to Hell for your own sins.
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