LAWLESSNESS IS SIN
Christmas Weekday
My dear encountered couples:
Lawlessness! We all know what lawlessness is, don’t we? It is happening every day in our country. There are many people all over the world who live outside the law, contrary to the law, who seemingly have no concern for law and order. From the poorest neighborhoods to the most wealthy, people can be found who think the law was not made for them. They act as if they are above the law. Is that what maybe we all think when we drive our cars above the speed limit?
John tells us that sin is lawlessness. “Everyone who sins acts lawlessly,” he says, “for sin is lawlessness.” That means we are all guilty of breaking the law. Whether we ever break any civil laws or not, we must admit we do break some of God’s laws. For we all sin. And if we look around us at life in this world we might get some idea of the fruit of our sins. But what about the world we cannot see?
Sin is a spiritual thing. Though it has its effect in the world of the material which is obvious to all of us, it has greater effect on the world of the spiritual. We can hardly begin to imagine how we disrupt the spiritual order of invisible reality when we commit just one small sin. If the physical world is in such a terrible state from all our criminal actions, can we visualize the state of the spiritual world from our Sins?
And let us not forget: Part of that spiritual world exists in us. We harm our souls when we sin, and not just a little. Are our souls in as bad a shape as our world? Maybe we should think about that the next time we are tempted to sin.
