“If you do what is right, will you not be accepted? But if you do not do what is right, sin is crouching at your door; it desires to have you, but you must master it.” Genesis 4:7 (NIV)
Sin is like a wild animal, a predator, crouching at the door. God said to Cain, “It desires to have you.” Sin is a destructive power. It is an active enemy.
Suppose you paint a wall in your house, and a child draws all over it with a crayon. You can wash the wall and get rid of the crayon, and if it’s really bad, you can paint over it again.
But suppose you have mold in your house. Painting over that won’t help you. Crayon leaves a mark that is easily dealt with. Mold is a living thing. It grows. It spreads. It destroys.
Some folks think of sin like the crayon. When you mess up, cover it over, clean up the mess, and move on. But sin is not like the crayon, it is like the mold. The crayon is static. The mold is on the move. It spreads. It needs to be cut out or it will destroy your house.
Sin is more than a list of things you have done wrong. It is a living power, a vicious enemy, and it is at work within you.
Some years ago John Stott, one of the most highly respected Christian leaders around the world, was speaking at a church. This godly man said, “There is no sin that my flesh is not capable of committing within 30 minutes of leaving this church.”
Why did he say that? Because he takes the Bible’s teaching about sin seriously. Sin resides in our flesh. This power is bigger, greater, and stronger than you are. It crouches at the door of your life, waiting to attack you.
Are you taking the power of sin seriously in your life?