Here’s a thought: What if sin isn’t bad because it is evil, but rather evil because it is bad?
What does that even mean?
Most of us think, my sin isn’t that bad because it’s not hurting anyone. For example, gluttony, intemperance, wasting time, or “private sins”. There is nothing inherently wrong with food, drink, relaxation, or the human body, in fact, these are God-given gifts. Why should He be so picky about what we do with them? Doesn’t God love me even if I’m overweight or stay up too late?
Yes, He does, and that’s precisely the point.
Our Lord said, “If I be lifted up, I will raise all to Myself” (John 12:32).
Sin isn’t about whether it hurts other people (no offence to other people), it’s about whether it damages our ability to love God back.
Sin hurts God (“offends” God, as it is commonly classically stated) not because the actions are objectively evil in and of themselves, but because they place a barrier between us and Him, an additional obstacle that must be surmounted in order for us to have a strong and intimate relationship with Him. Every sin is an act of unrequited love. He loves me, but I love everything else. Every time we choose earthly pleasure over God we become a little more attached to this world and its instant gratifications and more blind and numb to the God who desires intimacy with us more than His own life.
It’s a little like Velcro
We were made with a million tiny hooks that were designed to adhere us firmly and strongly to God’s million tiny loops designed to draw us in and hold us close. But what happens when velcro is left open and flopping, away from its intended base? IT STICKS TO EVERYTHING! We are creatures of attachment, constantly grasping to fill our need for connection and desire. Picture the Velcro strap on a pair of children’s shoes. When we attach to every passing thing – every string, every hair, every bit of fuzz, every grass clipping – all of it gets stuck in our tiny hooks making the ability to stick to the intended base very difficult indeed.
Sin weakens our desire for God, building in us a belief in the lie of the enemy that we can be happy here. That we can have everything we want right now and that Heaven will be ours too on the other side of that… you know, as long as we don’t go do anything actually “evil”.
But here’s the thing. We are free in Heaven, and heaven is God… not calorie free burgers and arm chairs. If we have no desire for Him, why would we choose heaven? If we do not want Him MORE than this life, why would we choose Him in the end?
What to do about it?
Obviously, the first step is acknowledgement – realizing what our “innocent” guilty pleasures actually do to our relationship with God.
Then, we have to slowly but surely pick out all the things that are stuck “in our hooks” so to speak. However, the trick is not to just pick them out, but adhere the velcro firmly to its intended base to protect it from gathering more debris. We must replace empty, mind-numbing, “comforting” habits that we have with the pursuit of God (Matthew 12:38-45, Luke 11:16-36).
He is our food (John 6:35), our drink (John 4:14), our rest (Matthew 11:28), and our Beloved (Song of Solomon 2:10).
And He is not to be replaced (Exodus 34:14)
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