Which is the Greater Enemy?

Satan or sin?

Many of us may answer Mr. S.A. Tan, but the real answer is sin. Satan can try all his best to tempt us to sin every day. He whispers in our ears softly that we can do this and that and God will never notice. Satan says that looking at and doing certain stuff will give us great pleasure (you know, like... eating Forbidden Fruit. . .?) and that we should always try to enjoy life the way WE want it. He tells us not to listen to God, saying that God’s trying to make our life miserable by setting so many boundaries.

But we often choose to listen to Satan, and that, is sinning against God. So the real battle now is between us and sin because it’s not Satan that separates us from God, it is sin. For example, in the book of Genesis, the devil influenced Eve to take a fruit from the tree of knowledge, saying that "You will surely not die. God knows that if you eat that fruit, you’ll be just as smart as Him and you’ll know how to differentiate good and bad." She was tempted by the devil. And she chose to disobey God by taking the fruit and later giving some of it to Adam, which was why her relationship with God was cut off. God is not a dictator, for that reason he gives us the choice to choose, and unfortunately the thing about humans is how we tend to choose what is in fact the worse for us just for a momentary pleasure.

However, by the power of Christ we can win this battle and stay away from the temptation of sinning. You'll find, though, sometimes when we have these breakthroughs, we start sharing testimonies with our friends and we think that we are forever free from sin, that we will never be tempted again. Before a week has passed, we find ourselves facing the same temptation once more. It's a never-ending battle!

The point is, we are never free from sin. And as much as we fight against it, sin will also fight back and find a way back into our hearts. According to Mark 9:43-47, "so if your hand makes you lose your faith, cut it off! It is better for you to enter life without a hand than to keep both hands and go off to hell. And if your foot makes you lose your faith, cut it off! It is better to enter life without a foot than to keep both feet and be thrown into hell. And if your eye makes you lose faith, take it out! It is better for you to enter the kingdom of God with only one eye than to keep both eyes and be thrown into hell.’’

What the passage means is that we have to make it harder for ourselves to sin in future. We don’t have to take it literally (otherwise a lot of us are going to be walking around limb-less), but we have to take radical actions like those said in the passage to stop ourselves from sinning. If we can’t handle this battle all by ourselves, that’s where the church and our fellow brothers and sisters in Christ come in. When we face these hardships, we need to seek spiritual guidance whether it is from our pastor, leader, friend or a family member. And don’t forget to pray to God and ask for His help and protection over you. We as Christians must do whatever it takes to not fall into sin which will eventually lead us down to where we obviously don't want to go!

It's true that the battle against sin is never-ending, and that more often than not we stumble and fall into it, we're human and we're not perfect, but God is. Don't forget God's eternal promise to you in just ten simple words -

"I Can Do All Things Through Christ Who Strengthens Me".
Philippians 4:13.

All the best and God bless! (:
CF SMKSU