"My son, if sinners entice thee, consent thou not." Pro. 1:10
The Bible is not written to confuse, but is given to us as a light to illuminate our path. A road map that leads us to the very heart of God. Solomon wanted his children to understand that a situation of temptation can be easily avoided by simply not following through with the evil. No matter the problem or the opportunity, we have the God given right to refuse to participate in evil actions and sinful conduct. It is a benefit, I suppose you could say, of our fallen state. We have to ability to decide what direction our lives will take and what laws we will obey – wether of sin unto death or of righteousness unto life everlasting.
This might seem like a foundational message, something we already know and practice. Unfortunately, we often think that the situations we get into are more than just cut and dry evil. In our minds we have more complicated ordeals to figure out that just should we or shouldn't we. However, in reality life is made up of no more than yes and no. Yes we live for God and no we don't commit sin. Pretty cut and dry. God is all truth, all light, and in him is no darkness at all. There are no grey areas, no "maybe it's okay now" situations - it is either right or wrong.
Part of the human condition is that we often believe things are more complicated than they actually are. Most of the time we force ourselves to search out a deeper meaning than just this is wrong, perhaps it is an effort to bring a greater depth to our lives, or even try to justify the actions that we desire to preform. In these situations we say within ourselves that this is more than just bad, it has a deeper purpose, and the good outweighs the evil. However, God has clearly spoken that though good may come of evil we will still be judged as evildoers. It isn't unrighteous . . . it isn't unfair . . . it is the way of Christ and it is perfect.
So what is the remedy for such a condition? In reality this is something that we just have to fight continually. Keeping ourselves aware that life is not as difficult as we want it to be. We were put on this earth to follow the example of Christ and live life for God, we were not given a map that we can not understand, but rather God has written his word in the easiest possible way. We must read it diligently and often, and in all of this let us never forget the "simplicity that is in Christ." |
