The Tongue Is a Fire, (PART 2)
September 24, 2025
THE ORIGIN OF SIN & THE INCLINATION OF HEART
September 26, 2025The Tongue Is a Fire, (PART 2)
September 24, 2025THE ORIGIN OF SIN & THE INCLINATION OF HEART
September 26, 2025The Origin & Course of Sin
Sin begins with the whisperings of Satan and demonic spirits in our hearts. If we “listen” to these voices suggesting that we deviate from “the straight & narrow path” of following God’s Word, we begin to entertain thoughts of sinful actions, and as we develop and embellish these thoughts, our worldly passions of “the flesh” are aroused and bear fruit in sinful acts. We read about this happening in the deceit of Satan leading to the sin of Eve in Genesis 3:1-7. Cain ignores the detailed, lengthy, and explicit warning of God in Genesis 4:6-7 and kills Abel in the very next verse. King Saul’s rapid decline in ability to lead the nation begins in 1 Samuel 13, as he lacks patience to wait for Samuel and rashly makes an offering to God without the proper authority to do so. David falls into the sins of adultery and murder because of his lust for the beautiful Bathsheba in 2 Samuel 11. David’s son Amnon succumbs to an evil lust for his beautiful half-sister Tamar and rapes her in 2 Samuel 13, despite her urgent plea, “Do not do this disgraceful thing.” And so on throughout the “Bible Stories.” In short, we humans are caught up in “Spiritual Warfare” between “the World, the Flesh, and the Devil” on one side and the Word and Will of God on the other. Paul, the Apostle to the Gentiles, sums up our dilemma quite candidly in Romans 7:13-25 – “Sin dwells in me! For the good that I will to do, I do not do; but the evil I will not to do, that I practice.”
Jesus clarifies the choices we have in John 10:10 – “The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy; but I have come that they may have life more abundantly.” This dynamic between the opposing “voices” of Deception and Virtue (Godliness) is depicted dramatically as Satan tempts Jesus in Matthew 4:1-11 and Luke 4:1-13. The Key to leading a virtuous life is “Obedience to the Word & Will of God.” Furthermore, there are enduring consequences to our choices, blessings for obedience and curses for disobedience, as Moses makes clear to the Children of Israel in Deuteronomy 11: “Love the Lord your God, and keep His statutes, His laws, and His commandments always. .. Keep every commandment that I give you today, that you may be strong, cross over Jordan, and prolong your days in the land which the Lord swore to give to your fathers. .. Love the Lord your God and serve Him with all your heart and with all your soul. .. Take heed to yourselves, lest your heart be deceived, and you turn aside to serve and worship idols, lest the Lord’s anger be aroused against you. .. Behold! I set before you today a blessing and a curse! The blessing if you obey the commandments of the Lord your God, and the curse if you do not obey.” The blessings from obedience and curses for disobedience are outlined in detail in Deuteronomy 28. Moses foresees the sins of the people, but depicts the blessings of returning to God in Deuteronomy 30:1-10 and the clear choice between life and death in 30:11-20 – “I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing! Therefore, choose life!”
The importance of “heart” is evident throughout the Bible. As a mirror reflects a face, so “a man’s heart reveals the man.” (Psalm 27:19) We must “circumcise our hearts,” for true “circumcision is that of the heart, in the Spirit.” (Romans 2:29) “The righteous God tests our hearts and minds.” (Psalm 7:9) God says in Jeremiah 24:6-7, “I will set my eyes on them for good, and .. give them a heart to know Me .. for they shall return to Me with their whole heart.” Furthermore, in Ezekiel 11:19, “I will give them one heart and put a new spirit within them. I will take out the stony heart and give them a heart of flesh {compassion}.” God desires repentance, return, revival, not death and destruction: “Get yourselves a new heart and a new spirit .. for I have no pleasure in the death of one who dies,” says the Lord God. “Therefore turn and live!” As Jesus says in the Beatitudes, “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.”
Our mind is like a radio – we can “tune in” to different frequencies, different channels. Because of the fall of Eve and Adam, we have a “split mind” – we can “hear” the Word of God, but we can also “hear” the temptations of Lucifer, the fallen archangel, known as the Devil and Satan. So we must “incline our hearts” to hear “the still small voice of God” (1 Kings 19:12). We find guidance in such popular sayings as “listen to your heart” or “let your conscience be your guide.” Isaiah asks God in 63:15, “Where are Your zeal and .. the yearning of Your heart .. towards me?” But God could also ask this of us! Do we long for God, yearn for God? Can we sing with the psalmist in 42:1, “As the deer pants for the water brooks, so pants my soul for You, O God”?
Paul urges his protégé in 1 Timothy 4:1 to avoid “deceiving spirits and doctrines of demons.” Furthermore, “The Word of God is living and powerful .. a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.” (Hebrews 4:12) “Solid food belongs to those who are spiritually mature, that is, those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil.” (Hebrews 5:14) “A wise man’s heart discerns both time and judgment.” (Ecclesiastes 8:5)
All we who want to draw near to God must mature our spirits and deepen our hearts. As Jesus says in Matthew 15:19, “Out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies. These are the things which defile a man.”
The temptations of Satan (“the wiles of the Devil”) whisper to us in our minds and hearts; but as we grow in knowledge and wisdom, we learn to “discern the spirits,” and if we are truly wise, we will quickly dismiss thoughts, feelings, and inclinations to do evil rather than good. As Paul advises the Corinthians, “Do all things with love.” (1 Cor 16:14) Paul speaks at length about how people who fail to glorify God with gratitude and thanksgiving for His many blessings fall into idolatry, “become futile in their thoughts, and their foolish hearts darkened” because they “exchanged the truth of God for the lie, worshipped and served the creature rather than the Creator,” so “God gave them over to a debased mind” and all manner of wickedness. (Romans 1:18-32)
After Jesus identified his betrayer in John 13:21-30, Satan invades the heart and mind of Judas Iscariot, and he goes to the Sanhedrin to ask money to betray Jesus. (See also Matthew 26:14-16, Mark 14:10-11, and Luke 22:3-6) Peter succumbs to worldly thoughts in Matthew 16:21-23 and Satan wants to “sift him like wheat,” but Jesus prays for him that his strength will not fail, that he will return from his betrayal, and “strengthen your brethren.”
Good habits and bad habits are built incrementally and our character is established by the choices we make. No one becomes a wino by drinking a first glass of wine or an alcoholic by a glass of whiskey. Jesus speaks of the “good and faithful servant” in the Parable of the Talents (Matthew 25:14-30), from which we derive the conventional wisdom, “Faithful in little, faithful in much.”
Sin begins with the whisperings of Satan and demonic spirits in our hearts. If we “listen” to these voices suggesting that we deviate from “the straight & narrow path” of following God’s Word, we begin to entertain thoughts of sinful actions, and as we develop and embellish these thoughts, our worldly passions of “the flesh” are aroused and bear fruit in sinful acts.
