July 2, 2018
The day is almost
here. So let's put aside the deeds of darkness and put on the armor of light.
Romans 13:12
If we thought Jesus was
coming in the door, it would instantly change what we were doing inside.
My mom was out of town for the weekend, so several friends
came over to spend the evening with us.
While we weren’t doing anything illegal, it was definitely a ‘guy night’,
and certainly a few things that my mother would not have approved of. We
were having a blast watching a not-so-good movie, when we heard the front door
open and my mother come in (back a day earlier than expected). Never in your life did you see a few guys
move so fast! Things got picked up as
fast as possible, the movie was turned off and ejected, and our behavior
changed pretty rapidly. We were already
in trouble for having friends over without permission, but it could have been
much worse.
If only we were a bit smarter and KNEW when our mom was
coming home!
We invite sin into our lives just like that story, welcoming
it into our hearts and lives as something to do when the parents are not
around. It not only comes over, but
takes us farther than we wanted to go, and lingers longer than we wanted it to
stay. And when that moment comes where
we finally get caught, it will cost us much more than we wanted to pay. But instead of being able to hide some of the evidence, when an
all-knowing God shows up unexpected, there will be no hiding the truth. Our sin will find us out, and it will all be
exposed.
Here’s the difference:
Jesus didn’t tell us a future date when He is returning. His instruction was to expect Him TODAY! That means we have no excuse for inviting sin
into our homes, thinking He is coming later.
Instead, we should not be surprised at all that our sin gets caught, and
consequences will follow, because we KNOW when He is coming. It will be Today.
Paul told the Roman church to stop inviting sin into their
lives like The Day is a long way off.
Instead, realize that “daddy” is coming any day now, and start acting
like He is on His way here. Then the
house will be in order, and there will be no apologies or cover-ups. Put aside those sins of darkness, and start
living with the acts of light.
Some would see that warning as a mean threat to our freedom,
using fear as an obedience tactic. But
God tells us ahead of time out of love for us.
He’s not wanting to come back and see us living in disobedience, God
wants to see us living out the commands He gave us out of love for Jesus. When we respect His wishes, it is no longer
an obligational fear, but a healthy righteous restraint.
So before you invite a sin over again, maybe start thinking
about how you would be different if you knew Jesus was coming during the
party. It may prepare you to handle the
sin differently – or hopefully, to not invite it over in the first place.
No comments:
Post a Comment