5 Wrong Ways to Deal with Sin

1. Think that you are never wrong.  You never sin.  Those that think they are never wrong are impossible to live with and have a big problem.  They have a big pride problem.  The Bible warns us that those who claim to have no sin are liars.  The first step to deal with sin is to get real and to own your stuff. 


2. Ignore the consequences of your actions.  Every sin has consequences.  Every sin has a cost.  The Bible says that the wages of sin are death.  The end game of undealt with sin is death.  Some sins kill us physically.  Some sins kill us emotionally or relationally.  People who ignore the consequences of their actions are dying a slow death throughout their lives and don't even realize why:  the consequences of their sinful actions is zapping all of the joy, success, and hope in life.  To deal with sin, we must be sick of sin - ready to cease and desist from the thing in life that destroys us.  This includes a change of mind and a change in actions so that we don't repeat the broken patterns of our past.


3. Continue to enjoy the pleasure of your impulses.  Sometimes, we run from sin, but many times, we run to sin.  We run toward our sinful lusts.  We run toward our sinful selfishness.  We run toward the things that will eventually hurt us.  Why do we do this?  It's because sin is fun for a season.  That's why the Bible teaches that we should flee sin.  Fleeing isn't a passive response.  Fleeing is an active step to run toward Godliness rather than sinfulness.  Impulses must be overcome with fleeing.


4. Compare yourselves to others.  Is good enough good enough for you?  In most areas, no.  But if one area, your relationship with God, maybe.  As believers, we know that we are forgiven and free from our sin, but instead of living in freedom and victory, we live with comparison and settling for less than God's best for us.  Instead of making a holy God our standard, we look to others (typically who do things worse than us) as our standard.  As long as we a better than the worst person around us, we are good enough.  That's why the Bible instructs us to not compare ourselves to others.  That's why God says, Be holy for I am holy.


5. Refuse to ask God or others for help.  We wrongly think that we must fight our battle with sin by ourselves.  We created the problem so we have to solve the problem.  We think that we have what it takes to try hard enough to make a change but we don't.  That's why we are told to ask God for help and to rely on the strength of others when we are weak.