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Sin Makes You Stupid
By George Stroh
September 28, 2020
How long, O naive ones, will you love being simple minded? And scoffers delight themselves in scoffing and fools hate knowledge? (Proverbs 1:22)
Pastor Gil Rugh has rightly said, "Sin makes you stupid!" And indeed it does. Stupidity is defined as behavior that shows a lack of sense and judgment. The unbeliever is a slave of sin with a sin nature that lacks good (or godly) sense and judgment; Jesus answered them, "Truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who commits sin is the slave of sin." (John 8:34)
But what about believers? Why do we stupidly sin? We sin because sin is, at first, pleasurable; Stolen water is sweet; and bread eaten in secret is pleasant. (Proverbs 9:17) Our old friend and Bible teacher, Larry Wright, used to humorously say, "If you sin and don't enjoy it, you probably aren't doing it right!"
Sin, however, always has consequences. For the unbeliever, the ultimate consequence is death. Not just physical death, but spiritual death, eternal separation from God in hell; For the wages of sin is death... (Romans 6:23a) The believer's sin is forgiven and covered by the blood of Christ; But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from the wrath of God through Him. (Romans 5:8, 9)
But for believers, our stupidity and sin also has consequences. Though our sins are all forgiven in Christ Jesus, our heavenly Father, disciplines us as His beloved children; Furthermore, we had earthly fathers to discipline us, and we respected them; shall we not much rather be subject to the Father of spirits, and live? For they disciplined us for a short time as seemed best to them, but He disciplines us for our good, so that we may share His holiness. All discipline for the moment seems not to be joyful, but sorrowful; yet to those who have been trained by it, afterwards it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness. (Hebrews 12:9-11)
Stop being stupid and enjoy the peaceful fruit of righteous!
Maranatha!
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