We’re officially in the dog days of summer, and it seems the world is getting crazier each day. For the past few months, I have been dealing with the loss of people whom I once considered friends.
People I was vulnerable with and trusted attacked me over my disability and Christian faith. Others told me as long as I gave them space in my head, I would be in bondage to them. No one likes to be held captive.
I’m reminded of the years I wandered through life living in sin. My accident freed me from my bondage to temporary pleasures and put the devil on the run.
After my recovery, I still played with the vices I couldn’t get enough of previously. Until God Almighty convicted me and I learned to put hedges between me and my temptations. I am not saying that I don’t sin, but that I am not a slave to sin in an unrepentant lifestyle.
In the recovery moment, the saying is, “You have to change your people, places, and things if you want to remain clean.” Our priorities must change. King Solomon warned, “Fools return to their folly as dogs return to their vomit (Proverbs 26:11), I can relate. Man’s sinful nature puts him in bondage to whatever he likes—good or bad, he will serve it.
Bondage is, “The tenure or service of, an enslaved person, servitude or subjugation to a controlling person or force.” We all serve something or someone.
Slaves only serve one master; every aspect of their life is in bondage to that master. The biblical Christian perspective on bondage is sinners are slaves to their sin (John 8:34, Romans 6:17-18, 2 Peter 2:19).
For over 500 years the new church (Protestants) has recognized and taught that all sin is equal; because all sin separates us from God (Romans 3:23). The great reformers Martin Luther and John Calvin contended with the Catholic Church that all sin is equal because all sin leads to death.
John Calvin hinged one of the five points of Calvinism (depravity of man) because every part of man is tainted with sin and thus separates him from God. To the Catholic Church he stated, “In forming an estimate of sins, we are often imposed upon by imagining that the more hidden, the less hideous they are.” Jesus warned us about self-righteousness and looking down on the sins of others (Luke 18:9-14).
“Big” or “small” sin is an inaccurate estimation because all sin equally separates us from God. The Apostles Paul and John make no distinction about sins because there is none (1 Timothy 1:9-10, Revelation 21:8). John makes it clear liars will be thrown into the same lake of fire as homosexuals and murderers; there is no kiddie pool lake a fire for more acceptable sins.
Sin is defined as missing the mark of God; all sin has the same eternal effect, thus it makes them all equal. Jesus’ half-brother warned that if we break the least of God’s commandments, we’ve broken them all (James 2:10,) because we have missed the mark and none of us are fireproof, we all have a sin problem. Jesus went further (Matthew 5:18-19.)
My younger brother is a sniper in the Army, he explained to me the importance of hitting the mark the first time, if he doesn’t hit the target, he probably won’t get another chance. That is how sin works. There is no room for error.
When we become genuine Christians, Jesus becomes our Master. Our devotion becomes in Him. The New Testament writers described themselves beautifully as bondservants of Jesus Christ.
Jesus told His Disciples they couldn’t serve two masters, we are to hate one and love the other (Matthew 6:24-25). He doesn’t say we can continue in some sin and still serve Him, all sin must be avoided. Anyone who teaches otherwise isn’t a Christian and that isn’t trash talk. We cannot become numb to sin.
In the Hebrew culture, it was common for the people to have slaves. However, the slaves were treated well, and after seven years the slaves were to be freed. But if the slave chose, they could remain in their master’s household. They became a part of the family for life, whom they were always reppin’.
Because they had tasted the goodness of their master’s household and they knew life as his bondservant was better than life in service to themselves or other masters.
We see this with the prodigal son when he realizes his father’s servants are living better than himself and decides to return home (Luke 15:17-19) and when the psalmist described the goodness of God like a shepherd (Psalm 23), Jesus describes Himself as the Good Shepherd (John 10:10-13).
Unfortunately, some choose to remain in bondage to their sin. AW Tozer shares, “From this bondage, reformers and Puritans and mystics have labored to free us. Today, the trend in conservative circles is back toward that bondage again. It is said that a horse, after it has been led out of a burning building, will sometimes by a strange obstinacy break loose from its rescuer and dash back into the building again to perish in the flame. By some such stubborn tendency toward error, fundamentalism in our day is moving back towards spiritual slavery.”
When we live in unrepentant sin, we can’t say “God is with us.” The gospel message isn’t Jesus plus our sins, it’s either or. Jesus told some followers to leave Him because they were workers of iniquity (Matthew 7:23).
Iniquity in the Greek anomia means without law, sinfulness. The Latin word literally means “not just.”—not justified before God. Theologians like Murray and Tozer described New Christians as carnal Christians because they still dabbled in sin when they needed to break the habit. An old pastor of mine disagreed, “You are either 100% saved or 100% lost.” They aren’t serving our King, they are just in bondage.
