226. THE ENEMY WITHIN

(The Information & Edification Series – Batch 5)

As human beings, many people have a tendency to see and hate the wrongs that other people commit but are either blinded to their own wrongs or reluctant to admit it, to regard it with the same level of disdain and to treat with it. Such people tend to get angry at sin (and rightly so) when they see it in others but then they either excuse, minimize or ignore it when they see it within themselves or those that they are close to and love.

To be quite clear, sin is anything that displeases God, anything that goes against his Word and his will and anything that he hates. It comes in many forms and the Word of God tells us that everyone of us have sinned and come short of God’s glory (Romans 3:23).

Outside of the perfectly righteous covering provided by Jesus Christ for us as wretched sinners, Romans 3:10-13 states:

“…There is none righteous, no, not one:There is none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God.They are all gone out of the way, they are together become unprofitable; there is none that doeth good, no, not one.Their throat is an open sepulchre; with their tongues they have used deceit; the poison of asps is under their lips:Whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness:Their feet are swift to shed blood:Destruction and misery are in their ways:And the way of peace have they not known…”

Even after we have come to Christ and are covered by his righteousness, the Word of God tells us, that as Christians:

“If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.If we say that we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.” (1 John 1:8-10)

Many people tend to consider certain actions as sin but not others or to think that God hates some sins but is lenient in relation to others. Yet, there aren’t a special class of actions or inactions that are to be called sin and then other wrongs to be regarded as not serious enough or worthy enough to be considered sin. Sin is sin and every wrong action that we commit or wrong thing that we do with our minds, our hearts, our hands, our feet, our lips, our eyes, our ears and any aspect of our body, whether we think it is a light matter or not IS SIN. In fact, if there is something right that we should do and we don’t do it, that inaction is also sin on our part.

Having defined sin and how expansive it is, this morning, I wrote:

If you’re angry about the sin of others but are not equally vexed with your own sin, then the anger you feel is nothing more than self-righteousness, artificial piousness and hypocrisy. If you truly hate sin, you will hate it in all its forms, all its manifestations and in all places where you find it, even when you find it in your own heart. When you see it within, you will hate it with the same intensity as when you see it without. It will be equally intolerable to you, equally contemptible. You will disapprove of it with the same level of disgust and will therefore pursue after it with the same intensity and fervour as you would, when you see it in others, so as to weaken its power, overthrow and annihilate it and in so doing, end its reign. Anything else is to be facetious.

In summary, if we are Christians, we must hate sin wherever we see it, whenever we see it, including those times when we see it within ourselves. If we don’t, then we are nothing more than sanctimonious, meaning that we are all about making a show of religious devotion, piety and giving the impression that we are spiritually superior to others, when in fact, we are not.

Paul in the Bible was spiritually mature as a Christian but even he was honest about his sin condition, whenever he saw it trying to rear its ugly head within. He did not dismiss it, excuse it or ignore it but instead, clung to Jesus Christ the more, the only one that could help him to be delivered from it.

He stated in Romans 7:

“For we know that the law is spiritual: but I am carnal, sold under sin.For that which I do I allow not: for what I would, that do I not; but what I hate, that do I.If then I do that which I would not, I consent unto the law that it is good.Now then it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me.For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh,) dwelleth no good thing: for to will is present with me; but how to perform that which is good I find not.For the good that I would I do not: but the evil which I would not, that I do. Now if I do that I would not, it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me.I find then a law, that, when I would do good, evil is present with me.For I delight in the law of God after the inward man: But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members.O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. So then with the mind I myself serve the law of God; but with the flesh the law of sin.”

If there is never a day or moment that you can recall recently, when you’ve been disgusted with yourself and ashamed over something ugly and sinful that you did, thought, said or something good that you ought to have done, know that God wanted you to do but didn’t do, then I would suggest that you go to the mirror of God’s Word and examine yourself in its light. It is highly possible that you can’t recall any such circumstance recently because there is an enemy of pride (which often deludes) within.

(Written on 24th March, 2022)

Dear Reader, if you found the above Article to be interesting, informative, edifying or beneficial, you may also be interested in reading the following under the ‘Broken Daughters‘ page: