Let’s face it, sin is fun. It brings pleasure. If it were unpleasant, no one would engage in it. Billy Graham once said, “If you don’t think sin is fun, you haven’t been committing the right sins.” God designed the human body with the ability to experience pleasure. He gave us five physical sensory abilities—sight, hearing, taste, smell, and touch. In addition, our thoughts produce pleasure. God experiences pleasure in His works. For it is God who is at work in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure (Phil 2:13). He took pleasure in me to make me [David] king over all Israel (1 Chr. 28:4).
We must distinguish between pleasures that please God and those He considers sin. Stealing may bring pleasure to some individuals, but clearly violates God’s commandments. Pornography brings pleasure to a multitude of both men and women, yet Jesus said everyone who looks at a woman with lust for her has already committed adultery with her in his heart (Matt 5:28). This also applies to women who engage in lust. The Bible warns us against acts that may bring pleasure to the flesh, which God condemns. We must also guard against pleasures God designed for enjoyment, but become sin when taken beyond His intended purpose. We all enjoy eating and experiencing the aromatic smells, feeling a particular texture of a food in our mouth, and tasting delicious flavors. However, it becomes sin when we take it to excess. Proverbs admonishes us, put a knife to your throat if you are given to gluttony (Prov23:2 NIV). Do not be with heavy drinkers of wine, or with gluttonous eaters of meat (Pro 23:20).
The pleasures of sin take you far enough to leave you trapped. Last year a feral cat bit my wife. Animal control came and set a trap baited with a can of sardine. The cat could not resist the smell of the fish. I am sure the one bite it ate tasted good, but this triggered the latch snapping the door closed leaving it trapped. The pleasures of sin are like a trap with tasty bait. It is fun for a time, but certain pleasures, leads to addiction and long term consequences. When people smoke their first joint, snort their first line of cocaine, inject their first heroin, or smoke their first rock of crystal meth, they experience a pleasant euphoric rush and high. However, at some point whether the first, the second, or the third try, the door snaps closed leaving the user trapped.
Not all pleasure leading to sin is this obvious and dramatic. The traps for Christians are most often subtle especially within pleasures God approves. Hunting and fishing have always been a means of pleasure for me. Yet, at one point I realized it consumed more time and energy than was pleasing to God. I would get home late on Saturday night tired and be less effective in my Sunday ministry. I began coming home no later than 6:00 PM. Jesus said the pleasures of this life choke our fruit not allowing it to mature (Luke 8:14).
Even though sin is fun, this does not mean that all fun is sin. God is not opposed to pleasure. My early training taught that God was a cruel task master opposed to any fun or pleasure. Severing Him included no place for anything but strict seriousness and rules. It took me years before I realized that Christianity was fun and brought pleasure. Believers can even enjoy fun activities outside the church building. I have fun with my wife, my children, and now my grandchildren. Taking care of my garden and animals brings pleasure. I experience great pleasure in writing. What God opposes is when pleasure usurps His place in our lives. Paul wrote that in the last days men would be . . . lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God (2 Tim 3:4). Jesus warned, “And just as it happened in the days of Noah, so it will be also in the days of the Son of Man: they were eating, they were drinking, they were marrying, they were being given in marriage, until the day that Noah entered the ark, and the flood came and destroyed them all (Luke 17:26). In other words, in the last days people will be enjoying the pleasures of life instead of loving God and ignore the warning signs of His coming.
Our sinful nature can only see the immediate pleasure of sin; the new man in Christ sees the pain, the deception, enslavement (Titus 3:3) it brings plus reminds us of the choice we have to follow God’s word through the prompting of the Holy Spirit overcoming the sinful nature. Moses serves as a key example. By faith Moses, when he had grown up, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter, choosing rather to endure ill-treatment with the people of God than to enjoy the passing pleasures of sin (Heb 11:24, 25).
Sustaining Word for the Week: Yes, sin is fun but its pleasure is temporary and leads to bondage. Serving Christ brings freedom and pleasures not only in this life but also for all eternity. Like Moses, we all have a choice.