Romans 7:5, Naughty Words, Naughty Actions

Romans 7:5

Genesis 6:5-7

Rain Warning

Do you remember being a child learning the definition of certain naughty words for the very first time? It wasn't like you weren't already sinning (to your mother's chagrin) in every way imaginable, but now your imagination was broadened and new possibilities introduced. Even more shocking for me was to discover some of those activities mentioned in the Bible either as something an Old Testament character was guilty of or explicitly denounced in the New Testament. It's not uncommon nowadays for "new" variations of sin to be written about with scandalous headlines with facebook aps inviting friends to read the article too ("if SoandSo allowed the post to stay on their wall, it must not be too bad for me to read about it also"). The mere mention that someone in the world is committing a particular sin provides fodder for our imaginations--not that we'd actually commit that sin, or at least that variation of it, although surely my sin isn't anywhere as horrible in God's sight so surely He overlooks what I am doing wrong and I can continue doing it even though I know it's wrong.
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If I train my imagination to focus on sin, I will increase the amount of sin in my life, both the variety and the frequency. Sin leads to more sin. If I am "in the flesh", then sin is what I know and all I have and it will only ever lead to death. We can read about the end of that road in Genesis 6 and it's not the path I want my life to take. I want to be in Christ, not in the world waiting for the Flood to carry me away. I want to seek out the mind of God rather than the imagination of this world. Sin leads to death; I want God's Word which leads to life.