The Little Foxes
This is our weekly post here at deposition of our faith. Thank you for joining us.
This is week 3
(Although you can start from anywhere, we encourage you to read up on previous posts as well; each topic leads into another)
Scripture Reading: Songs of Solomon 2:15
Sin. A lot of people hear the word, “sin”, and automatically think of the usual suspects. Lying, Murder, Stealing, Adultery (to some), and so on. Sin is actually much more. The Bible tells us of a time when Jesus said that the Holy Spirit will reprove the world of 3 things. Sin, Righteousness and Judgment (John 16:8). However, when we look at the next verse of scripture, we see what Jesus Himself refers to as sin. He says the Holy Spirit will reprove the world of sin, “because they believe not in me”.
Well, that sounds new.
This means that Doubt and Unbelief are considered sins.
Hang on, hear ye hear ye.
It makes complete sense that doubt and unbelief are considered sins because sin is basically anything we do that displeases God. The Bible tells us that without faith, it is impossible to please God (Hebrews 11:6).
First off, we know that one of the easiest ways to disobey the Word is by introducing doubt. Disobedience is also a sin, and was what led to the downfall of man in the garden. We see in the Genesis, when the serpent tempts Man, he first invokes doubt. He said, “The big man said you shall die? Of course you won’t. God doesn’t want you eating it because He knows you will become wise like him; as a god” (Genesis 3:4). This led to man doubting the integrity of the clear instruction that was given by God.
From a natural perspective, there is a scenario in which we can explain what doubt communicates to God. Imagine you had a child, and he complained to you about getting bullied in school by another age mate. I imagine a scenario in which, after he complains, I give him a small mobile phone and tell him to call me whenever this bullying happens. “A little kid, bullying my kid? Let’s see”. Now, if my son does not trust that I am strong enough to handle this 10 year old terror, or that I am smart enough to understand his situation, he will not even bother calling me. He’ll be defeated perpetually, because he cannot even wrap his head around the idea that I can be a solution to his problem. This is how doubt, not only offends God, but also hinders us from accessing our rights (I don’t know about you, but I’d be offended!).
Another subtle sin is worry. Worry is a by-product of doubt.
“Your Heavenly Father knoweth ye have need of all these things…”.
Worry is the insulting effect of an inability to trust or believe in the Word of God. I will also illustrate this by using the analogy of a father and a son. Let’s say my kid is afraid of the neighbour’s kid because he’s been threatening to beat him up. One day we are visiting the neighbour’s and he’s still shaking like a leaf whilst holding on to my hands tightly. He’s sweating profusely, and saying “daddy, let’s not go there anymore. Those kids will beat me up”. It is most definitely insulting to the senses! Do you mean that this chubby 12-year-old will beat you AND me combined? When we worry, we are acting based on our own puny level of reasoning. We know that is not faith. And we know that anything that isn’t done in faith is sin.
We can extrapolate from this base reasoning and see that fear is also sin, because it is not a product of faith, but of doubt. Believing in God and His Word means also obeying his commandments. We know that this is the surest proof of our love for God (John 21:17). So, we can also say that Wickedness is sin. Not acting in love is sin. The Bible gives us an illustration of what Jesus considers primarily to be a mark of his own people. He tells us how, on the Lord’s day, people will tell Him all the manners of miracles they had done in his name, and his response will be: “Depart from me, ye workers of iniquity!”(Matthew 7:23)
Why so harsh?
“When I was hungry, you didn’t feed me. When I was naked, you didn’t clothe me, when I was in prison, you didn’t visit me” (Matthew 25:42). Here, Jesus was referring to people who were “followers” of him, but not obedient to his commandments and not doers of the things they preached (He illustrated this with a parable).
“…If I have not love…I am nothing”
Herein lies the subtlety of sin. It’s not just about lying, stealing, and the other “OGs”. It’s about the little foxes; the things we do everyday that we are so unmindful of, that slowly spoil the vine. And the effect of sin is three fold: first, Guilt and Corruption, which work hand in hand to ultimately cause separation from God.
God is without sin. Sin is literally everything that God does NOT stand for. God cannot reach you in your sin. It’s not that his hands are too short (Isaiah 59:1–2). And so, when we sin and we know we have sinned, not only has it corrupted us and restricted our access, it also means we can no longer come boldly to God. However, that is the only way we can obtain mercy and find grace (Hebrews 4:16). We all know the story of every father who abandoned his family. “The longer I was away, the harder it was to return”. This is how satan hoodwinks us. We get so deep into ungodliness with addictions, and then we feel so guilty that the hardest decision is to turn back and start walking back in the right direction. This vicious cycle continues until a man is purged of unrighteousness when he confesses (and forsakes) his sins (1 John 1:9). The good news is,
…whoso confesseth and forsaketh his sins shall have mercy.
Join us again next week for another refreshing time with God’s Word.
God be with ye till then!
