Don't Be Led Astray By Small and Subtle Sins

By Alex Nichols

It is a sad reality that in our culture today those who were professing Christians, who say they know, love, and trust Jesus, actually unknowingly surrendered and no are no longer running the race of faith. They didn’t have to make a public recantation of their faith, they just simply had to stop exercising it. They have been lulled to sleep by their own desires and appetites and given themselves over to sin and death. 

As a result, we have a deconstruction culture where many have decided that Christianity, the church, the leaders, and their Christian friends just require too much of them. Perhaps if they were only getting more, receiving more, and their needs were met more, then they might continue being Christians. But that has turned their faith into consumerism, elevating emotion over truth, and made it all about them in the process. 

The truth is, Christianity is not about us. The church is not about you. The Bible is not about you. Community Group is not about you. Serving is not about you. Fill in the blank, it is not about you. We must know that the very person that rescued and redeemed us is the very person that all of life and everything is about: Jesus. 

In writing this, I do not aim to discourage, frustrate, or cause wounds to my brothers and sisters. I actually desire and prayerfully hope to do quite the opposite. I hope that God would stoke the flame of zeal to know Jesus and make him more known. However, in order for this to happen, we have to acknowledge where we are blind, and where we are actively and passively laying down our arms. Dependent on the Holy Spirit, we must ask him to reveal to us the secret hidden sins in the depths of our hearts lest they kill us.

Led To Slaughter

In his book Tempted and Tried, Russel Moore describes a moment in which he was listening to the radio as it was describing how meat factories today are killing cattle. What scientists found in the process of getting from the bovine to the patty was that the more stressed, anxious, and frightened an animal was before its death, the worse the quality of meat. On the other hand, if the animal was completely unaware of the events unfolding before them the quality of the meat was far better. Moore says, “Workers shouldn’t yell at the cows…they should never use cattle prods, because they are counterproductive and unneeded. If you just keep the cows content and comfortable, they’ll go wherever they’re led. Don’t surprise them, don’t unnerve them, and above all, don’t hurt them” (Moore 25-26). 

Like cattle going to slaughter, are we not so often content, comfortable, unnerved, and led away by sin and Satan to our death? Led by what? Led by whom? James 1:14-15 says, “But each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire. Then desire when it has conceived gives birth to sin, and sin when it is fully grown brings forth death.”

Moore continues, “Along the way, this scientist devised a new technology that has revolutionized the ways of the big slaughter operations … In this system the cattle aren’t prodded off the truck but are led in silence, onto a ramp. They go through a ‘squeeze chute,’ a gentle pressure device that mimics the mother’s nuzzling touch … There are no sudden turns. The cattle experience the sensation of going home … as they mosey along the path, they don’t even notice when their hooves are no longer touching the ground. A conveyor belt slowly lifts them gently upward, and then in the twinkling of an eye, a blunt instrument levels a surgical stick right between their eyes” (Moore 25-26).

A Crafty Enemy

Genesis 3:1 says that Satan is, “more crafty than any other beast of the field” and Revelation 12:9 says that Satan is “the deceiver of the whole world.” Consider for a moment how much these scientists have studied cattle. They have tested them, watched them, analyzed their responses to certain actions, and perfected their craft to help produce the best product. Their goal is to not just kill the animal well but to do it in such a way that the cattle have absolutely no idea that it ever happened. We should not be so foolish as to think that Satan is no different. He has been perfecting his craft to kill each and every person he can - starting with our parents Adam and Eve. Where scientists have worked for a handful of years at this practice, Satan has been watching mankind for thousands upon thousands of years and he knows what will make you turn your head, if only for a moment, to destroy you.

Oftentimes, when discussions of sin, Satan, and death are mentioned, I’m afraid that many of us stop listening. Like me, we often say to ourselves, “I know. I’m good. I’m ok. Not me. I’ve heard this already.” Let us repent together if this is what we are thinking before we are found dead in our sins (Eph 2:1). You see, unlike the cattle being led to their death, we know the truth. We know that “If you live according to the flesh you will die” (Rom 8:13). And yet, we still submit to sin and the desires of our hearts. It isn’t so much the loud, obvious, taboo, sin-grasping behaviors that we should be thinking of fleeing from, but the sins and enticements that all too often get ignored and set aside as trivial.

Heart Problems

Jeremiah 17:9 says, “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it?” Satan aims to deceive you, your heart too is deceitful, and the culture and world around you certainly are not cheering you on towards Christ. To see what we cannot see, to know what we do not know, we need the help of the Holy Spirit. We must submit ourselves every single day to reading God’s Word. 

Yes, every day. It’s shocking to me to hear and listen to arguments being had against reading God’s Word every day because people don’t “want to be religious” or “only want to do it when they feel like it.” While it is good to avoid being legalistic when we are in the covenant of grace, and it is good to cultivate joy in reading the Word, Satan uses those two motivations against our sinful hearts and sidetracks us from doing it at all. We should be more afraid of not knowing our God personally and eternally than being fearful of forcing ourselves to read God’s timeless Word. Be transformed by the renewing of your mind, believer (Rom 12:2). This is not merely to look good to others or say that you are the most disciplined Christian. It is about your soul. It is about obedience to Christ. It is about Jesus. 

Luke 8:17 says, "For nothing is hidden that will not be made manifest, nor is anything secret that will not be known and come to light.” Ecclesiastes 12:14 says, “For God will bring every deed into judgment, with every secret thing, whether good or evil.” What is happening in the secret of our hearts will be revealed. That will be either now before we die or after when we stand before God. Maybe both. 

No Compromises

If we make small compromises time and time again it will eventually lead to a greater consequence. So often the sins that we fail to address are the small little ones that are no big deal to us. They’re white lies. They’re small fits of anger. They’re bouts of pride and selfishness. We would do well to remember that the sins that we think are no big deal, are the same sins that Christ died for. The sin that’s no big deal cost our parents Adam and Eve being in the presence of God. Oh, that we would no longer make the excuse that sin is no big deal. This in and of itself is sinful and demonic. This very thought itself is something that Satan has convinced God’s people of. Minimization of sinful behaviors and actions are the sinful thoughts, feelings, and desires we should be hunting for and putting to death. Yes, consider the “obvious” sins and what we should flee from, but think and ask Christ to reveal to you, Christian, the sin that is in the secret depths of your heart and mind, for those Christ nailed to the cross as well.

For those that are in Christ, does God condemn you? No, for that is contrary to his character. God the Father loves you, more deeply than you’ll ever understand. Scripture says he disciplines those he loves. His will is not that you would be led away in your comfort and contentment to die apart from him, rather the Father desires that you would know him, love him, and trust him. That through salvation in Jesus you would walk according to the Holy Spirit and not the flesh. That you, a beloved son or daughter of God in Christ, would begin or continue waging war on your flesh, sin, and Satan and pursuing those around you in the same manner. 

Sin, Satan, and death are real, and so is our hope in Jesus. Jesus is our greatest treasure. Jesus is our greatest hope because he has surely defeated all of these. As we fight sin and pursue Christ we do so knowing that Jesus is victorious and has accomplished all that we cannot. In Christ, we are more than conquerors (Rom 8:37). Move forward in faith and follow and obey Jesus for, “whoever knows the right thing to do and fails to do it, for him it is sin” (James 4:17).

For further reading see:

Moore, Russell D. Tempted and Tried: Temptation and the Triumph of Christ. 2011. Wheaton, Crossway, 2011.