A few days ago I wrote on my face book page about The Race of Faith and I asked readers to write what their understanding of "the sin that easily entangle" means. I only got two answers from 4 people who had looked/read the post. Why did I just get 4 people? Does it mean the post was boring? May be it was. May be I should have WRITTEN something like: post this on your time line in the next ..... minutes or else you will ....... or if you are a christian post this to ten people and you will get doors opening for you......your prayer requests shall be answered.
Back to our main issue; the two responses I got here were , ANGER AND LYING: Anger is defined as a strong feeling of being upset or annoyed because of something wrong or bad : the feeling that makes someone want to hurt other people, to shout, etc. : the feeling of being angry. All of us can identify with this feeling. Is it sin? Do you get angry? Sure, we all do. Do we sin when we get angry? I do not think so. Anger becomes sin if it leads us to committing sin. The Bible in Ephesians 4:26-27 admonishes us thus: “Be angry, and do not sin”:[a] do not let the sun go down on your wrath, 27 nor give place to the devil. Anger can lead to sin. THIS CAN BE SEEN IN WHAT IS HAPPENING IN OUR COUNTRY, schools are in flames because the learners are angry with one thing or the other and since they are learning from us adults, when they us doing exactly that on the streets in the name of protesting and picketing. The constitution allows us to peacefully demonstrate but if we go beyond what is peaceful we sin. Does this easily entangle us?
Next is LYING. Lying is defined as a present participle of the verb lie which means: to make an untrue statement with intent to deceive and 2: to create a false or misleading impression. I remember one day we were having a luncheon at a hotel in Eldoret and the then Secretary General of Scripture Union Rev. Gichungwa was speaking to the pastors who had gathered there. He was talking about the significance of reading and he asked the pastors who had gathered there that day: How many of you read your bibles today in the morning? But before anybody answered, he quipped, I do not want to make you sin. So please do not answer that question nor raise up your hands because I know most of us will surely raise up their hands for fear of being seen as non-readers. This illustrates how many of us leaders want to live a lie and even tell our friends how we are praying for them when the opposite is the reality.
Lying is a terrible sin in itself because it presents itself in very sweet colours and avails itself in the hour of dire need, hunger, distress, hopelessness, imminent danger, survival, lucrative job opportunity, an illicit sexual encounter,fear of tomorrow, fear or losing face, fear of failing an examination or interview, prospects of going overseas and pursuing one's dreams and the list goes on and on. Do you posses a fake document that helped you get something? Have you eve obtained or falsified receipts or information so that you can claim reimbursement? Ever testified against anybody falsely? To me, some people might find problems agreeing with this- Using dye to make your white hair black is lying especially if you are trying to hide your age. I confess that most of the times I have found myself on the wrong side of this law. I falsified my date of birth to indicate that I was 18 when I was 16 so as to be employed in the Kenya ARMY. I went for the recruitment but could not make it. This lie affected and subjected me to more lies and more lies until I confessed and it was corrected.
A lie requires another horrible lie and the person lying goes through unprecedented intense psychological torture as he/she is subjected to cover up the existing lie. This is what the Bible calls the sin that easily entangles. Being entangled in sin is like what is depicted in this picture below where each lie forms a strand on top of the other and before one realizes, he/she is deep into the mire.
The sin that easily entangles according to me, is LYING because it is through lying that death came to the world Romans 5:12-21 Therefore, just as through one man sin entered the world, and death through sin, and thus death spread to all men, because all sinned—
The devil, through the serpent, lied to Eve. The original sin came through a lie told to Eve, Story is in Genesis 3: 4 The serpent said to the woman, “You surely will not die! 5 For God knows that in the day you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” 6 When the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was desirable to make one wise, she took from its fruit and ate; and she gave also to her husband with her, and he ate. 7 Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves [b]loin coverings. From the day that our mother Eve was lied to, she was easily entangled in the lie, and we all are entangled in that lie until Jesus Christ comes to give us victory through His death on the cross. And as we live day by day, we are warned to walk circumspectly and flee from the sin that easily entangles. Since we now know the sin that easily entangles we should put on the full Armour, and walk in truth like Paul who said Philippians 3:14 "I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.
A few days ago I wrote on my face book page about The Race of Faith and I asked readers to write what their understanding of "the sin that easily entangle" means. I only got two answers from 4 people who had looked/read the post. Why did I just get 4 people? Does it mean the post was boring? May be it was. May be I should have WRITTEN something like: post this on your time line in the next ..... minutes or else you will ....... or if you are a christian post this to ten people and you will get doors opening for you......your prayer requests shall be answered.
Back to our main issue; the two responses I got here were , ANGER AND LYING: Anger is defined as a strong feeling of being upset or annoyed because of something wrong or bad : the feeling that makes someone want to hurt other people, to shout, etc. : the feeling of being angry. All of us can identify with this feeling. Is it sin? Do you get angry? Sure, we all do. Do we sin when we get angry? I do not think so. Anger becomes sin if it leads us to committing sin. The Bible in Ephesians 4:26-27 admonishes us thus: “Be angry, and do not sin”:[a] do not let the sun go down on your wrath, 27 nor give place to the devil. Anger can lead to sin. THIS CAN BE SEEN IN WHAT IS HAPPENING IN OUR COUNTRY, schools are in flames because the learners are angry with one thing or the other and since they are learning from us adults, when they us doing exactly that on the streets in the name of protesting and picketing. The constitution allows us to peacefully demonstrate but if we go beyond what is peaceful we sin. Does this easily entangle us?
Next is LYING. Lying is defined as a present participle of the verb lie which means: to make an untrue statement with intent to deceive and 2: to create a false or misleading impression. I remember one day we were having a luncheon at a hotel in Eldoret and the then Secretary General of Scripture Union Rev. Gichungwa was speaking to the pastors who had gathered there. He was talking about the significance of reading and he asked the pastors who had gathered there that day: How many of you read your bibles today in the morning? But before anybody answered, he quipped, I do not want to make you sin. So please do not answer that question nor raise up your hands because I know most of us will surely raise up their hands for fear of being seen as non-readers. This illustrates how many of us leaders want to live a lie and even tell our friends how we are praying for them when the opposite is the reality.
Lying is a terrible sin in itself because it presents itself in very sweet colours and avails itself in the hour of dire need, hunger, distress, hopelessness, imminent danger, survival, lucrative job opportunity, an illicit sexual encounter,fear of tomorrow, fear or losing face, fear of failing an examination or interview, prospects of going overseas and pursuing one's dreams and the list goes on and on. Do you posses a fake document that helped you get something? Have you eve obtained or falsified receipts or information so that you can claim reimbursement? Ever testified against anybody falsely? To me, some people might find problems agreeing with this- Using dye to make your white hair black is lying especially if you are trying to hide your age. I confess that most of the times I have found myself on the wrong side of this law. I falsified my date of birth to indicate that I was 18 when I was 16 so as to be employed in the Kenya ARMY. I went for the recruitment but could not make it. This lie affected and subjected me to more lies and more lies until I confessed and it was corrected.
A lie requires another horrible lie and the person lying goes through unprecedented intense psychological torture as he/she is subjected to cover up the existing lie. This is what the Bible calls the sin that easily entangles. Being entangled in sin is like what is depicted in this picture below where each lie forms a strand on top of the other and before one realizes, he/she is deep into the mire.
The sin that easily entangles according to me, is LYING because it is through lying that death came to the world Romans 5:12-21 Therefore, just as through one man sin entered the world, and death through sin, and thus death spread to all men, because all sinned—
The devil, through the serpent, lied to Eve. The original sin came through a lie told to Eve, Story is in Genesis 3: 4 The serpent said to the woman, “You surely will not die! 5 For God knows that in the day you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” 6 When the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was desirable to make one wise, she took from its fruit and ate; and she gave also to her husband with her, and he ate. 7 Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves [b]loin coverings. From the day that our mother Eve was lied to, she was easily entangled in the lie, and we all are entangled in that lie until Jesus Christ comes to give us victory through His death on the cross. And as we live day by day, we are warned to walk circumspectly and flee from the sin that easily entangles. Since we now know the sin that easily entangles we should put on the full Armour, and walk in truth like Paul who said Philippians 3:14 "I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.
