Sinful Snacks
“Yes, he humbled you by letting you go hungry and then feeding you with manna, a food previously unknown to you and your ancestors. He did it to teach you that people do not live by bread alone; rather, we live by every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord.” (Deuteronomy 8:3)
When Satan came to tempt Jesus in the desert, Jesus had been without food for forty days. Satan first tempted Jesus where he thought it would hurt most: Satan tempted Jesus to turn rocks into bread so that He would no longer be hungry. Jesus quoted the above Scripture to counter that temptation. We do not live by food alone; we live by every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord. Do you feel this is true in your life? Is the Word the thing that you live by? Before quickly answering this, consider your sin struggles. How do you treat them? Do you kill them at the cross of Christ and cling to Him or do you go as long as you can without them until you’re at the point of desperation, starving and then you return to that sin, if just for a little while, like bread during a forty day fast?
“Well then, should we keep on sinning so that God can show us more and more of his wonderful grace? Of course not! Since we have died to sin, how can we continue to live in it?” (Romans 6:1-2)
“This means that anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person. The old life is gone; a new life has begun!” (2 Corinthians 5:17)
Before Christ we were dead in our sins, but if you claim to have accepted Christ’s payment for your sins, if you have declared that you have died to yourself and you seek to live the way Jesus teaches you to live, then that old life is gone and you are dead to your sin. As Paul points out, if you have died to your sin, how can you continue to live in it? It seems the logical answer would be that if you are indeed still living in sin, you have not truly died to it.
“Anyone who continues to live in him will not sin. But anyone who keeps on sinning does not know him or understand who he is. Dear children, don’t let anyone deceive you about this: When people do what is right, it shows that they are righteous, even as Christ is righteous. But when people keep on sinning, it shows that they belong to the devil, who has been sinning since the beginning. But the Son of God came to destroy the works of the devil. Those who have been born into God’s family do not make a practice of sinning, because God’s life is in them. So they can’t keep on sinning, because they are children of God. So now we can tell who are children of God and who are children of the devil. Anyone who does not live righteously and does not love other believers does not belong to God.” (1 John 3:6-10)
The Scriptures do not mince words over this subject. John wrote that when people keep on sinning it shows that they belong to the devil. Those who have been born again into God’s family do not make a practice of sinning. We have discussed what it means to make a practice of sinning before; like anything you practice, it has to be something you keep coming back to. Making a practice of sinning comes when you view sin as something to avoid for as long as possible. It’s as if this walk with Christ is a fasting from sin rather than a death to it so that when those hunger pains get too strong, you allow yourself a little snack. A snack to satisfy a sinful desire might be feeding a porn addiction by reading a dirty novel or watching a movie/show that contains nudity and/or sex scenes. Maybe you feed an anger problem by allowing yourself to get mad at inanimate objects instead of people. Perhaps you struggle with pride so you get a little snack from likes and comments on social media.
“Dear friends, if we deliberately continue sinning after we have received knowledge of the truth, there is no longer any sacrifice that will cover these sins.” (Hebrews 10:26)
Are you deliberately continuing to sin? Are you planning the sin, waiting for the next opportunity? Are you working hard to cover it up, to keep this continual sin in the darkness? If you are living with a deliberate sin that you are continually returning to, then you must seriously consider whether or not you have died to your sins. God is very clear on this and in His great grace and mercy, we still have time to turn from our wicked ways, confess our sins, repent and live in Christ. We will not be perfect on this side of Heaven but there is an eternal difference between an infrequent loss of control and living in a deliberate, continual sin. So how are you living: on a steady diet of sinful snacks or by every word that comes from the mouth of God?
May the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all.
—Redeemed
