Stop Visiting the Dumpsite of Sin

Our daughter is at that age where she wants to be involved in everything. Sometimes my wife will be working outside and she’ll want to be there. This normally works well except in this rainy season when there are pools of water everywhere. Before you know it she’ll be sitting on the mud or getting her shoes drenched in water. Now most days it’s not a big deal. You just let her finish enjoying it all and change her. But when you are preparing to leave the house there’s a limit to how many times you can do that. The rule is, you can warn her a hundred times to watch out for muddy pools or you can do the more effective thing and keep her away from it. Many times I forget this rule and you can imagine the outcome. I think when it comes to our struggle with sin we forget this rule. We know the sin that clings so easily and yet we continue playing near the muddy pool. We know the site that tempts us and yet hover around. We know the news that up our gossip taste buds but still keep our ear there. We know the smell of sin but we still camp near the dumpsite.

God has given us several weapons to fight sin and the Gospel by the power of the Holy Spirit is the most powerful of them all. By the power of the one who conquered Sin, Satan, the World and Death we can overcome any of our besetting sins. That’s our only hope as we fight and seek to kill sin everyday. But nothing says we have to be in the killzone everyday. God has also given us wisdom to smell temptation a mile away. And the older we get and hopefully mature up the more we know the sin that gets us. If not, if we have a circle of genuine Christian friends they’ll mention it to us. We can tell what gets our blood boiling so that we can keep away from it. If power is our kryptonite then we want to avoid any position that gives us unquestionable power. Better yet share it. If it’s lust that keeps us awake at night then we don’t want access to particular sites late in the night. If it is money that calls us in then we don’t want to handle big sums of ministry money without strict accountability.

I would say maturing up in the faith is not reaching a level where sin can’t get you but learning to stay so far away from it. The mature are not those who have fought sin so much that it gave up. No, it is those who have learnt to avoid the sin that clings so easily. Maturity is knowing sin can get you so easily and thereby staying far from the dumpsite. Any man who thought he had defeated all sin in his life soon found himself beaten beyond recognition. It is the man who lives in fear of besetting sin that remains awake. Not the fear that he is helpless before sin but that though he has all the weapons to conquer it he needs not expose himself to unnecessary danger. Such a man comes to the end of his life not with stories of how close he stayed at the edge of the sword and survived but how lucky to have been further from the thick of battle. His legacy is not that he ran towards sin and sin ran away from him. But he learnt to flee from sin at the first smell and only stayed to fight when that was the only option. That is the kind of man I want to emulate. The kind of man I hope my daughter will have as his father. Not the man who exposes himself to unnecessary temptation.

If you think you are a match for sin just think about this: after Satan had tempted the author of life for forty days in the wilderness what did he do? Now you’d think he gave up seeing he was no match for him. But no, the Bible says he left waiting for an opportune time, see Luke 4:13. I like when the Jesus film sometimes shows Satan lurking in the background. Like a roaring lion you see sin trying to get the better of him. You see it with the religious leaders who are trying to corner him everyday. Sin never gave up and he had to learn to manage it and most times keep the confrontation with sin to a minimum until he had to face it head on at the cross. Now do you suppose you are better than Jesus, the serpent crusher? Then why do you run towards sin instead of away from it? Jesus had to flee sin otherwise he would never have made it to more than a year of his ministry on earth. Sometimes he had to stay in the desolate places and still temptation would come for him there. He could conquer Satan with a word but chose to keep off the battleground of temptation until the right time and so defeated sin completely.

Dear brother and sister, please learn to flee from your besetting sin. If you think you are standing then take care lest you fall, 1 Cor 10:12. Stop visiting that dumpsite. Stop staying late at night with that site so close to you. Stop seeing that friend that gives you juicy gossip so oftenly. Separate that church account from your personal account. Share that power you have however little you suppose it to be. Share that pulpit limelight with others. Make no room for temptation because like the proverbial giraffe all it needs is to put its head in before it tries the whole body. Be also careful to take some rest and find less tempting ways to rest. Many giants of faith including the great David found the greatest temptation when they were trying to rest from the usual battle, see 2 Samuel 11. When we are tired, sin gets us very easily. But when you rest, avoid strolling to the wrong sites. Go away with a friend of the same gender to that holiday destination. Find cheap ways to rest that don’t just involve binge watching a tempting series. Get some clean air and enjoy nature. Find something to build or farm in the village. By all means stay away from the dumpsite of sin.