4/13

John 8:34

³⁴Jesus answered them, "Truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who practices sin is a slave to sin."

Sin enslaves us. This is easy to see in drug addicts and those who view pornography, but not as easy to see in many other less visible sins. Pride and selfishness are perhaps the two most common sins. While some make no effort to hide their enslavement to these sins, others go to great lengths to appear free from them, which is actually an expression of their enslavement. For example, a prideful person may perform a very menial task when others are watching so as to be sure everyone respects him or her for humility. This person would never perform the same task if no one was there to see the deed.

One way to recognize our own sins is to pay careful attention to our thought lives. The sins that enslave us will be regularly on our minds. We look to those things for satisfaction instead of looking to our relationship with God. The transformed mind will be meditating on the Word of God and a relationship with Jesus.

Another way to recognize our own sins is to look at what we do when we are alone. How do we spend those moments when no one else is around? One more way to see what is in our hearts is to listen to our own speech. Our speech comes from our hearts. We may carefully think of how to say something so as not to reveal our true nature, but eventually it comes out in the things we say. When Jesus said that He came to set the captives free, He was referring to liberating us from our captivity to sin (Luke 4:18).

Consider: Are you living in the freedom that only Christ can give?