The Danger Of Sin

Recently New Testament scholar, D. A. Carson, commented that one of the hardest things about speaking to college students currently is that they have very little concept of sin. “Oh, they know how to do it quite well,” he went on. But it is almost as if they can no longer grasp the fact that they truly are sinners. I would add that this description tends to fit for many in other seasons-of-life also. With this blindness to sin also comes ignorance about the danger of sin.

Recently I ran across the following poem by the seventeenth century English Puritan, John Bunyan (author of Pilgrim’s Progress) that is designed to remedy this malady. Read carefully what he says about the subject. I will offer a brief italicized explanation after each stanza.

Sin is the living worm, the lasting fire;

Hell seen would lose its heat, could sin expire.

Better sinless in hell, than to be where

Heaven is, and to be found a sinner there.

One sinless with infernals might do well,

But sin would make of heaven a very hell.

The eternal presence of sin (and God’s wrath for sin) is

what makes hell so horrible. This is so much the case

that hell would lose is horror without it and heaven

would lose its glory if sin were present there.

Look to thyself then, keep it out of door,

Lest it get in and never leave thee more.

Don’t allow sin to enter into your life. It can

become habitual and difficult to remove.

Fools make a mock at sin, will not believe

It carries such a dagger in its sleeve;

How can it be, say they, that such a thing,

So full of sweetness, e’er should wear a sting?

They know not that it is the very spell

Of sin, to make them laugh themselves to hell.

Some think sin is not a big deal—even laughing at it

and making fun of it. Such persons tend to think

life is all about finding pleasure apart from God. As

they are having a good time, they numb themselves

to it, never turn to the solution of Christ, and set

their course for eternal conscious punishment in hell.

Look to thyself, then, deal with sin no more,

Lest He who saves, against thee shuts the door.

Don’t allow sin so to blind you that you never turn to

Christ and find out that someday it is too late to do so.