Why do I sin? Our culture says that one of the reasons that I sin is because I am a victim of my past. The events of our past cause us to be who we are. If you are struggling with those thoughts today, I would encourage you to take time to read Genesis Chapters 37-50 and focus on the concluding statement from Joseph in Genesis 50:20. If anyone has a reason for being bitter and resentful, it is Joseph, but instead of allowing those events to “cause” him to become bitter, he allowed them to enable him to become better!. Events must never define who we are, or what we can become. Our relationship with God must do that. We must never minimize the cost of trauma in our lives, But we must remain focused on the plan of God in molding us into the image of Christ. We read in Philippians 3:13-14 “Brethren, I don not count myself to have arrived; But one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead, I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. … READ MORE

As we continue to think about how our culture explains away inappropriate behavior, another explanation is that our parents or society is responsible for our sinful behavior. We often excuse our behavior, by saying, ” did what I did, because of what you did. Fore example: I would never have gotten angry with you if you would not have broken the vase. This leads us to the question, do faulty relationships or bad environments CAUSE me to sin? Proverbs 13:20 reminds us that “The one who walks with wise men will be wise, But the companion of fools will be destroyed.” While those we walk with affect the choices we make, they do not CAUSE us to behave sinfully. It is not what actually happens between people that creates sinful behavior, it is the way we perceive that relationship and the way we emotionally respond to that perception. “Perception” and “response” are the two key words here. In all relationships, we perceive the other party as having a certain attitude toward us, and we respond to the other party according to our own perceptions of that attitude. In other words, people don’t respond emotionally to what is real, only to … READ MORE

There are many reasons given to attempt to explain why people do what they do. Until science discovered DNA and chromosomes, the idea of a specific gene that causes us to struggle with our sin was not widely entertained. This has lead to the theory that I can’t help what I am doing, and therefore, it is a sickness or malady that I can not control. The problem with this is that there is little or no hope that there will be any cure for this malady any time soon. People become “trapped” in their behavior, and as a result we see many acting out their behavior in an open and flagrant way. While we may have a genetic predisposition toward certain types of behavior, that does not mean that we have to live and act on that predisposition. Free will, choice, and discipline still have a great deal to do with how much these tendencies will affect a person’s actions. Sinful behavior cannot be legitimized by a quick baptism in the gene pool. Remember we are a fallen race, born in sin. We were born spiritually dead (John 3:5-6), and are all physically imperfect (1 Cor. 15:1-54), As a … READ MORE