22 Your eye is like a lamp that provides light for your body. When your eye is healthy, your whole body is filled with light. 23 But when your eye is unhealthy, your whole body is filled with darkness. And if the light you think you have is actually darkness, how deep that darkness is! ~ Matthew 6:22-23NLT
Have you ever watched someone continuously eat an unhealthy amount of unhealthy food but always drink a Diet Coke with it so that it’s healthier? They don’t change the way they eat; instead, they switch out a regular sugary drink for a different kind of sugary drink that is arguably worse than the regular one. They think that somehow they are making healthy choices when, in reality, they are just making bad decisions all around. Today’s Church does the same thing.
We live in sin Monday through Saturday, and then on Sunday we go to church to have our sin justified by a pastor who is also living in sin. This is what Jesus is warning about in Matthew 6:23: if the good thing that you think you are doing is actually bad, then how bad is the bad that you are doing? You think you’re doing good. You think you’re on the right path, but this whole time you are actually living in sin. You are actually on your way to death. You’ve deceived yourself into believing that what you are doing is bringing you life, when in actuality it is bringing you death.
So many of us are deceived into believing that we’re good. That we are light. That we are living in the will of God, when we’re living in sin. We’re living in opposition of God. So, how are we to know if we are living in sin? We read our Bible, and we weigh our actions against the Word of God. The LORD is our standard, not our own conscience. It’s not about whether or not we feel conviction that makes it a sin; it’s about whether or not the LORD has said it is a sin. He has the final say, not we ourselves. The Israelites were condemned for having no conviction for their sin.
15 Were they ashamed when they committed abomination? No, they were not at all ashamed; they did not know how to blush. Therefore they shall fall among those who fall; at the time that I punish them, they shall be overthrown,” says the LORD.
Jeremiah 6:15ESV
Sin isn’t sin because we feel conviction about it. Sin is sin because it is wrongdoing. Therefore, don’t just rely on words that tickle your ears or whether or not you feel conviction. Rely on the Word of God. Weigh your actions against it. Work out your salvation with much fear and trembling.
Peace. Love. Go Forth and Stop Deceiving Yourself.