Unlearn the Demand for a Sin Free Life

“Sticky sin” describes moral issues that tend to stick around. We fall, and then we fall again. Or we finally get victory, and then collapse into pride because of our victory. Or we use one sin (vanity) to fight against another sin (gluttony) and realize we’re just trading sins, not overcoming sin.

Of all the things I had to unlearn, one of the biggest was my faulty understanding of temptation. I especially want younger Christians to know this: to be human is to be tempted. There is no humanity without temptation. Thomas Brooks writes, “The eagle complains not of her wings, nor the peacock of her train of feathers, nor the nightingale of her voice—because these are natural to them. No more should saints complain of their temptations, because they are natural to them. Our whole life, says Augustine, is nothing but a temptation; the best men have been the worst tempted; therefore, remain silent before the Lord.”[i]

Even Jesus was tempted. If you think you can become so holy, disciplined and consecrated that you leave temptation behind, you are in for a bitter disillusionment. Your temptations will die when you die, but not one second before.

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