seekeroftruth
Well-Known Member
Romans 6:15 What then? Shall we sin because we are not under the law but under grace? By no means! 16 Don’t you know that when you offer yourselves to someone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one you obey—whether you are slaves to sin, which leads to death, or to obedience, which leads to righteousness? 17 But thanks be to God that, though you used to be slaves to sin, you have come to obey from your heart the pattern of teaching that has now claimed your allegiance. 18 You have been set free from sin and have become slaves to righteousness.
19 I am using an example from everyday life because of your human limitations. Just as you used to offer yourselves as slaves to impurity and to ever-increasing wickedness, so now offer yourselves as slaves to righteousness leading to holiness. 20 When you were slaves to sin, you were free from the control of righteousness. 21 What benefit did you reap at that time from the things you are now ashamed of? Those things result in death! 22 But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the benefit you reap leads to holiness, and the result is eternal life. 23 For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
This is from the commentary.Lawlessness leading to more lawlessness: Paul describes a principle ingrained in human nature. Lawlessness leads to more lawlessness. Righteousness leads to holiness — which is more righteousness. This describes the dynamic power of our habits and how we move along in the direction we are pointed.
Think of four trees in a row: the first at one year of growth, the second at five years, the third at ten years, and the last at 15 years. Which tree will be the most difficult to pull up out of the ground? Obviously, the longer we are rooted in a behavior the harder it is to uproot it — a principle that works both for good and evil.
Two things are going through my mind this morning, after reading these verses. The first is just how apropos my cigarette smoking is as an example of this description. If I had just tried a cigarette, got sick and never picked up another cigarette again, I would have never been a slave to nicotine. I used to plan my trips around going to get my cigarettes. I used to carry an open pack, a new pack, and a bic lighter everywhere. I didn't use a purse a lot. I carried them in my hand.... leaving me extremely right-handed because I had my packs in my left hand. I went to work as soon as I could get a permit so I could afford to buy my own cigarettes. I was a slave.
I tried to stop. But slaves can't just walk away from the master. I tried to cover it up. I smelled like a can of glade hovering over a cigarette.
Oh, and I was a Christian before I picked up a cigarette for the first time. That nicotine demon found a 12-year-old girl with a clean slate! Boy... demon nicotine had just the little vessel. Cigarettes were twelve cents a pack when I started smoking. A pack would last a week or more. Cigarettes got rooted, before the cleanliness of the slate was established.
The second thought I had was the idea of "ordinary". When I started smoking, I choked a lot! Then I got used to the smell and the gagging stopped. Lighting a cigarette became a habit. I could fire up a cigarette without even thinking about it. It became common. I became used to it.
Is that how it goes with suicidal thoughts? Is that how it goes? Do you consider the word for a while... and then get used to it.... and then start to consider it normal... until the demon whispering "suicide is an answer" has you hypnotized? Can we get "ordinary" about suicide? Is it the same when a shooter packs in a bunch of guns and decides to mow down the next crowd or their third-grade class? Does the thought get to be as ordinary as lighting a cigarette?
Why do most addictions stink? Why do most addictions come with nasty side-effects?
Why do we insist on being slaves to horror?
Why do murder and mayhem make the headlines, while feeding the poor and healing the sick is just "what those people do"?
I would love to be addicted to Christianity. That would be really cool... right?
Addicted to Christianity.... The side effect is eternal life.
