The Deceit of Sin

Praise Reports:

• Last week Sharon shared that she was going through some hard sufferings, but this week her daughter is in a better situation and Sharon is understanding her own suffering.
• Everyone shared how they saw Jesus in the past week, relating many wonderful blessings.

Prayer Requests:

• Warren and Mary—their business may go bankrupt if they can’t get more customers.
• Katherine—her hip and her scheduled surgery
• Vanessa—problems in her home, may she be safe and strong in the Lord

IMG_9876.JPG, a photo by boky1 on Flickr. 

Hebrews 3:12-14 There’s a lot going on in this passage, but the part we want to zero in on today is this part of verse  13, “so that none of you will be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin.” There are three things here:

1. Sin—this is falling short, missing the mark. God has not called us to perfection, so this does not refer to times when we fall short of being perfect (thank goodness!); instead we are called to be faithful (Revelation 2:10). Sinning in this case is like dropping out of a race, not being faithful to the end, losing belief. It’s giving up, not necessarily making a mistake.
2. Deceit—If you've ever said these things about something sinful, “What’s wrong with it?” “It’s not like it’ll send me to Hell…” then you probably know the sort of deception sin can trap us with. The point of this verse is that it is the deceit of sin that hardens our hearts. When we grow weary of the race, doubt, grow bored, etc., we are vulnerable to deception. There are several ways in which we can be deceived:
• When something is more than we bargained for:  one “small” sin has the potential to bring a lot of baggage with it.
• When something has a promise and falls short: for example, people keep partying because it feels good, then they don’t feel so good afterwards, then they party to feel good again, and so on and so on until they've built it into a lifestyle.
• When it’s not at all what was expected: like getting a job that suckers you in with being great at first, then morphs into a completely different job description just when you’re trapped with golden handcuffs. 
• The best thing to do is just don’t go there. The road of deceit is slippery.
3. Harden—you can only walk in deception so long before your heart begins to harden. Will one sin send to Hell? Probably not. Can one sin lead you into deception? Yes. Can that deception harden you? Yes. This is a principle: frequent use causes hardness (think of a calloused hand). Before you know it you’ll begin to think, “I’m OK, what’s so good about being a Christian?”

There is a rare disease called congenital analgesia where a person is born incapable of feeling pain. It is a horrible disease because those who have it are constantly in danger of life-threatening injury. There are no warning signs, none of those little aches and pains that we’re so used to; these people are in a sense “hardened” against anything that might anticipate a major medical condition. When we can’t feel pain spiritually—when we’re so inured to sin that our conscience is no longer pricked by it—then we also lose our capacity for love of Christ.

Hold fast, then, and stay the race. Remember, we are companions of Christ!