Simply put, the sin is any breach of God's "laws". It is any act or thought contrary to God's intention. The word "sin" raises a smile with most people. It seems to be a bit archaic, perhaps suitable for old ladies in a church and for priests with starched collars. The word "sin" makes association with Middle Ages, hermits, monks and nuns (with their heads bent and faces tormented). Only pathetic "bigots" who lack the courage to make decisions about their own lives can take seriously such nonsense like sin. We want to be free, to enjoy life, to decide for ourselves about what is good and beneficial for us. We need to try everything that offers any fun or excitement, that raises adrenaline levels. We must enjoy life while we can, while we are young. Perhaps there will be time enough to think about God when we are no more able to fool about.
This is what the attitude is of most people. And it is no wonder. Magazines are full of it because, in fact, it is the basis of our consumer society. Commercials try to persuade us that having this or that product is a must if we want to be up to date, enjoy our meal, experience the real refreshment, feel excitement, simply, feel better. And nobody warns us against the consequences. Actually, there is an exception - cigarettes. In these commercials you can usually see a nice young couple or at least a tough young guy and hear something about the right style, freedom and similar claptrap while the lower part of the screen displays a message in smallish letters saying that Ministry of Health warns against detrimental effects of smoking and sometimes even that smoking causes cancer. It is irony because, on the other part, the government supports smoking owing to the exorbitant consumption tax. And apart from that? Nothing, nobody warns us that the Mars bar will much likely extract our dental fillings and cause pain of sensitive teeth rather than give us "pleasure we can't measure". Nobody tells us in commercials that eating Big Macs will make us into "balls of fat" rather than real men. I could continue along this line for a long time.
And it is the same with the sin. It promises us wonderful experiences, terrific feelings, excitement, joy and feeling of happiness. But again, it is only a commercial trick. We want a beautiful car that would attract a beautiful girl to us, but we have not enough money. The sin offers us an option of a fraud or a direct theft. However, it forgets to warn us that owing to that theft, we will possibly spend quite a long time in prison.
We want to be interesting, but in fact, there is not much interesting in our lives. The sin offers us an option to become interesting - we need only to "improve" the truth, to "prettify" it.Yes, we only need to fabricate things to become the centre of attention. However, the sin fails to warn us that every lie we say requires many other lies to be fabricated to support the original one; that we will soon get entangled in the net of lies and, as soon as the truth comes to the surface, we will not only fall down from our spot in the limelight but we will also lose our old friends who will no longer be able to believe us.
We want excitement, and the sin makes it readily available. And what about alcohol or weeds (marijuana)? Wow! What experiences! Everything is so colourful, I can hear (and see) you in multiples, everything seems to me so funny... But the sin does not warn us that the time is bound to come when we have to get sober. And again, the world is mostly grey as was before; the only solution the sin has readily available for us is another flight from reality into intoxication by alcohol or drugs. Having sobered up, you feel the boredom and dullness of life even more intensely; thus, next flights from reality are only the logical outcome. Of course, the sin fails to warn us that these flights of ours will soon become an urge and later an addiction, which we will hardly be able to cope with. It will drive us to suicidal thoughts and some of us will not limit themselves to mere thoughts....
Would you like another sort of excitement? Sex is said to work well. And the more the better. And the wilder it is and the more partners you have the better. But as usual, the sin fails to warn as against venereal diseases including the so far incurable AIDS, against unwanted pregnancies followed by murders of unborn children, against marriages broken due to infidelity (pursuit of pleasures) etc., not mentioning what happens at the spiritual level. The sin also uses jokes to the same effect as it does commercials. Have you ever heard the joke that "the wife is like Trabant (a bakelite car from the 1970s) - she can satisfy but not electrify"? I have got no wife, nevertheless, I have got a 40-year-old Trabant, therefore I have quite a good idea of how something that can satisfy but not electrify looks like. :-) but even such a joke, which looks harmless at the first sight, has some influence.Men will wonder whether there is some truth in it and whether it would not be wise to try it also with other women - just for "comparison". The same holds for women. Destroyed relationships and broken marriages are logical consequences we have not been warned against by "the sin".
Why not try a different kind of excitement? What about a jump into water in an unfamiliar locality from as high a place as possible? What an adrenaline rush! The sin will not warn us that if there is a small depth there, we can come up paralysed, with a broken spine or even dead. And what about driving a car at the limits of our abilities as well as those of the car? Wow, what an excitement, what a rush of adrenaline! And as usual, the sin somehow fails to warn us that accidents at the speed of 100 or 200 kilometres per hour are hard to survive in good health, if at all.
Can you see? We took the bait of the sin, falling for the gimmicks used in ordinary commercials. It is not about the truth, the aim is to ensnare people!
If we are just results of an absolutely inconceivable chance (e.g. according to Darwin's theory of evolution) then there is not any special meaning to our life and it is only logical that we live in such a way that we would enjoy it and make it as agreeable as possible. However, if we are created beings, our creator is the only one who is able to provide an explanation as to what the intention of us being created was and what the meaning is of our life in this "tearful valley". He can also provide a "user guide" to our bodies and lives.
The Bible, which declares itself to be the Word of God, says that we have been created and even that we have been created in the image of our creator. It also tells us that our life here on earth is not the longest phase of our existence. It shows us what our creator is like, his character, his will etc. And it is also a sort of user guide to our bodies and our lives.
In principle, it is quite simple. If you do not know how to use a "product" , there is a considerable risk that you will use it incorrectly. And, taking into account our limitations, in the case of such a complex "product" like the human body it is quite certain. Well, you can hammer in a nail with a camera but it is not wise, because it will probably be the last thing you will do with it. Of course, you can go swimming with your favourite mobile phone, but you can be quite sure that you will make no call from it any more. If you do not obey the producer's recommendation contained in the user guide, adverse consequences are to be expected.
And the same holds for the sin. God warns us against the sin not to deprive us of something but to protect us! He knows how much every sin devastates us and separates us from Him! He knows how destructive the sin is. In spite of all the evil we have committed, God keeps offering us His help - because He (for some incomprehensible reason) loves us.
Perhaps we will understand it in time and respond to God's offer of reconciliation. And maybe we have to touch bottom to call to our creator: "God, are you there somewhere? And are you willing and able to help me? Please, do it!"
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