Another word for sin

If I were to make a list of what I considered the worst immoral behavior, it would likely include murder, robbery, abandoning children, sexual assault, and the other tag lines in our daily newspaper. God’s list has those in it, but this one has a few surprises and hits much closer to home:

“But understand this, that in the last days there will come times of difficulty. For people will be lovers of self, lovers of money, proud, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, heartless, unappeasable, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not loving good, treacherous, reckless, swollen with conceit, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, having the appearance of godliness, but denying its power. Avoid such people.” (2 Timothy 3:1–5)

When teaching a class of children that the Bible says everyone is a sinner, one five-year-old looked at me with her big brown eyes and said, “But I’ve never murdered anyone!”

Like many, her focus was on the ‘big’ stuff, things that send perpetrators to jail, and things that they ‘never do’ supposedly making themselves safe from the sin list. However, the above verses strike deeper and reveal the root of many of these ‘big’ sins. It shows why no one is exempt from that list.

Lovers of self. Not long ago, our adult daughter announced her opinion of why the world is in such a mess. She said it is because people are totally selfish. An Old Testament verse backs this up in a prophecy about Jesus and the reason He had to die:

“All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned—every one—to his own way; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.” (Isaiah 53:6)

Selfishness is going our own way. It may not seem bad, yet Solomon wrote, “There is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way to death.” (Proverbs 16:25) He also wrote:

“Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths. Be not wise in your own eyes; fear the Lord, and turn away from evil. It will be healing to your flesh and refreshment to your bones.” (Proverbs 3:5–8)

Going my own way is easy. Yesterday’s test was to trust God’s leading rather than my own ideas. He blessed in numerous ways and my totally exhausted bones were refreshed. Rather than a list of more personal experiences to show that this is true, I’d suggest to just test it out. Abandon all those ‘I’ll do it myself’ and ‘I can do this’ ideas and anything else that is not of faith. Give God the opportunity and freedom to bestow His Holy Spirit power and He will surprise everyone with the results.

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Jesus, faith in You is too often only for eternal life and only parts of this life. The past few weeks You have been impressing me to trust You with everything, even the details of my responsibilities that I’ve been able to deal with in the past and all by myself. I need to rely on You completely because ‘self-effort’ is simply another word for sin.