Saturday 05-14-11

The wicked earns deceptive wages, But he who sows righteousness gets a true reward. - Proverbs 11:18

I've got to thinking about this verse over the past couple days. How true it is, sin is a deceptive wage. It promises great reward and unmatched pleasure. Yet, it cannot deliver what it seems to promise. Sin is deceptive.

The deception can take many forms. It can lie to us, tell us that it is our right to snap at our siblings to make snide comments and tear them down. After all, it's not like our siblings are showing love to us. Or perhaps it comes in the form of sexual lust. Can that 2nd look really be all that bad? I mean after all she's the one who chose to wear that immodest blouse. Maybe the deception comes in the form of pride, believing that we are responsible (and worthy of praise or respect) for accomplishing the things that we have. Disregarding the sovereignty and provision of God and the sacrifice of others.

The lie is that God the Father, creator of heaven and earth is withholding from us that which would ultimately satisfy us and bring us joy. The lie is that relationships, respect, sex, posessions, health, marriage, children, a better job (the list goes on) will somehow bring us joy. And so we defraud our sisters in Christ in order to fit in with the world and have a "relationship". We will cheapen God's gift of marital intimacy with pornography just so we can have the pleasure of sex. We will demand of others the respect we think we deserve and be angry if we do not receive it. If we are not careful we will take any blessing or gift from God, strip it of it's value (of pointing back to God as being more important) and attempt to find satisfaction and joy from it. We will come up short every time.

Why? Because sin is a deceptive wage. God designed us to enjoy health, children, sex, posessions, and many other things. He did not design those things to be ultimate in and of themselves. He designed and gave us so many gifts that we would use them in a manner which makes more of the giver than of the gift. So the deceptive wage is this: that the gift and our determination of how to use it is better than God himself. And so sin appears to be satisfying in the moment, however because we stripped the gift of it's eternal satisfaction (of glorifying God) we are left unsatisfied and guilty.

Praise be to God that there is hope for us. Jesus Christ. Although we've lied, lusted, cheated, been prideful and committed adultery in our hearts'. Jesus came bore all of our sin if we will repent (turn from our sins) and trust (believe that He accomplished for us, what we could not do ourselves) Him. And if we trust Him and pursue righteousness than verse eighteen holds a great promise for us. It says that "He who sows righteousness (or obey's God in repenting and trusting) get's a true reward." If we are living a lifestyle of repentance and trust alone in Jesus for salvation, than we get an ultimately satisfying reward. . . . God! On top of that, we get to now obey Him, use the gifts and blessings rightly and glorify God. In doing so we will find eternal joy, not in health or marriage but in God himself.