Does your sin bother you?

For many people in the 1950s, smoking and drinking a lot of alcohol was just normal. It was what everyone did. All the celebrities smoked; all social events centred on alcohol. No-one yet knew of the risks of these behaviours and the damage they were causing to their bodies. If you were to ask someone back then what they thought about their smoking and drinking, they wouldn’t really know how to answer. It’s great, they might say. It is what everyone does. It relaxes me and passes the time. What’s the problem?

But now I want you to think of a different situation. Think about someone in 2025 who used to smoke and drink heavily but who now understands the damage these things cause. They live differently to how they used to, even though they are deeply tempted to have a smoke, especially when under stress. How do you think they feel when they slip up and have a smoke? Or they give in to temptation, after being sober for years, and have a drink of alcohol? There is great shame, anger, and bitterness with themselves. It is no longer a thing of joy but a thing they hate, yet they did it. They know the damage and they want desperately to be free of these things.

There are two very different responses here to the same behaviours. It is a little like that when it comes to sin. Sin is living in a way that God hates, breaking God’s laws. It can be things we do, like lying or stealing. It can be things we think about, like lust or greed. It can be things we say, like slander and gossip. Or it can be things we dream about, selfishness and a life apart from God. Whatever form it takes, all of us sin. All of us live in ways that please ourselves and not God.

When you’re not a Christian, you don’t even know about sin, and you don’t see it as a problem at all even if someone points it out to you. After all, ‘why shouldn’t I live how I like?’, you might think. It is like smokers in the 1950s; it’s normal, everyone does it, it feels good, so where is the problem? Yet when you’re a Christian, your attitude to sin changes. You know you are saved from sin; you know sin is so bad that Jesus needed to die for it, and you want to honour God with your life. When you’re a Christian, falling into temptation is terrible and you know how bad it is. You feel different about what you used to find normal.

Does your sin bother you? If it does, it is a sign that you are a believer. Don’t just let it bother you. Confess it to God. Ask for help with dealing with your sin. Don’t drift into thinking that the sin is normal, ignoring your conscience and the work of the Holy Spirit. Sin is serious and we should feel the pain when we have fallen into temptation.

Yet we also need to understand that we are saved sinners. Even saved sinners feel our sin strongly, but we know that our sin is paid for by Jesus. The hardest work has been done for us. And God continues to work in us to make us more like Jesus. We should do what the Puritans used to call ‘mortification’: we should work to kill the sin in our lives. We know God hates it, and we know it dishonours our Father; let’s strive towards purity where sin has less of a grip on our hearts than it does today.