“…the deceitfulness of sin” Hebrews 3:13
Even though a believer is a new creature in Christ with a new nature, there still remains within him much of the remnants of sin. The Apostle Paul experienced this within his own life, writing, “I find then a law, that evil is present with me, the one who wills to do good” (Romans 7:21). This “law”, or this ever-present, often very powerful, influence of indwelling sin is characterized by its enmity against God, constantly working in the believer to keep him from communion with God and from obedience to the duties of the Christian life.
Our verse speaks of the “deceitfulness of sin.” This deceitfulness often manifests itself in subtlety. One characteristic of this subtlety of the operation of sin is to make the duties of our Christian life seem wearisome. The apostle Paul recognized this constant war within and wrote, “I discipline my body and bring it into subjection” (I Corinthians 9:27). We are exhorted as Christians to pray without ceasing, redeem the time, do all to the glory of God, exercise our gifts, and not to forsake assembling together. But for many believers, the remnants of sin rise up to argue for the weariness of this constant devotion and attention to duty. The believer is tempted to rationalize that this level of commitment is reserved for super Christians like Paul, or ministers, or missionaries. This line of thinking can even be aggravated when the believer looks at unbelievers in their seeming peace, pleasure and prosperity. They are tempted to echo the sentiments of the Psalmist who found himself in a similar situation and complained, “Surely I have cleansed my heart in vain” (Psalm 73:13). In the days of Isaiah, God complained regarding His people, “you have been weary of Me, O Israel!” (Isaiah 43:22). In the parable of the talents, the man who received just one talent justified to his master his ill use of the talent by stating, “Lord, I knew you to be a hard man, reaping where you have not sown, and gathering where you have not scattered seed” (Matthew 25:24). This man was ultimately condemned, but even for true believers this mindset can readily develop. Charles Spurgeon, in commenting on this passage said about the servant, “He judged his lord to be one who expected more of his servants than he had any right to look for,” further noting that it can happen for some that “their religion is their labour, not their delight; their God is their dread, not their joy.”
Another subtle manifestation of this deceitfulness of sin is a lulling of the believer into a kind of complacency, or a sense of “having arrived” in his Christian experience. This was remarkably illustrated in the life of David. In his days of being pursued by Saul, David was presented with a golden opportunity to kill him. Saul had come into the cave where David and his men were hiding in order to relieve himself. We read that David’s men encouraged him to seize the opportunity by saying, “This is the day of which the Lord said to you, ‘Behold I will deliver your enemy into your hand, that you may do to him as it seems good to you’.” They were encouraging David to kill Saul. David responded only by cutting off the corner of Saul’s robe, but “it happened afterward that David’s heart troubled him because he had cut Saul’s robe” (1 Samuel 24:4,5). What an extraordinarily tender conscience David possessed at the time to be so troubled for having only touched Saul’s garment. The reality that Saul was anointed by God as king so overwhelmed him, that he would not dare take matters into his own hands. And yet, later, after Saul was gone and David had received the kingship of all Israel as well as having established himself in Jerusalem, we see David having become complacent and gazing from his rooftop upon a woman bathing. It would seem that now that his major battles had been won, during which time he was so actively dependent upon God, he had then entered into a state of “having arrived,” thus becoming carelessly complacent, thus so easily slipping into terrible sin. Perhaps David had this danger of complacency in mind when he penned, “Now in my prosperity I said, ‘I shall never be shaken’” (Psalm 30:6). Jonah may very well have rationalized in his mind that his disobedience was acceptable when he so easily discovered and booked passage on a ship bound for Tarshish. He became complacent in his disobedience. There he was, fast asleep in the hold, the man sent to awaken Nineveh, being told by the pagan captain, “What do you mean, sleeper? Arise…” (Jonah 1:6). “Sleeper,” what an apt description of a complacent Chrisian.
There is another subtle working of sin which can influence the believer into a kind of formality. Religion becomes no longer the outworking of a love relationship with God, but an organized structure or systematic set of doctrines, rules and regulations. Like the Pharisees, they are deceived into thinking they can “tithe mint and rue and all manner of herbs, and pass by justice and the love of God.” The apostle Paul warned of those who speak with the tongues of men and of angels, have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, have all faith to remove mountains, bestow all their goods to feed the poor, and give their bodies to be burned, and yet have no love (Luke 11:42; 1 Corinthians 13:1-3). It is this cooling of love mixed with religious knowledge which results in this terrible state of formality. This seems to have been the snare into which the church at Ephesus fell. Jesus’ message to them was, “I know your works, your labor, your patience, and that you cannot bear those who are evil. And you have tested those who say they are apostles and are not, and have found them liars; and you have persevered and have patience, and have labored for My name’s sake and have not become weary. Nevertheless I have this against you, that you have left your first love” (Revelation 2:2-4). By all outward standards, they appeared to be contending earnestly for the faith, but there had developed an inner coolness or indifference to grace which manifested itself in a lack of love. This lack of love begins with a lack of love for God which is that old enmity coming forth from the remnants of sin. There may still be faithfulness, diligence and even zeal for the duties of the Christian life, and such a one can be deceived into measuring their spiritual health by their attention to these things. But this only further highlights the subtlety of this working of sin in the believer. He regularly goes to church, gives of his time, money and talents, even witnesses, and yet all of it is just formality if there is no love.
A further subtle working of the remnants of sin comes in the form of compromise. The mind is sometimes persuaded to reason that just a little indulgence of certain sin is somehow acceptable in the life of the believer. After all, seeming due diligence is being prayerfully applied in all other known areas of experience. The believer is deceived into thinking that a little indulgence in one small matter shouldn’t matter. But this is to give the enemy a foothold. The Canaanites who were not driven out of the land in the days of the conquest of the land under Joshua’s leadership became a snare to the people as they intermarried and adopted pagan Canaanite idolatry and worship (Judges 3:6). Saul was commanded by God to utterly destroy the Amalekites, but he was seduced in his pride to spare king Agag of the Amalekites as a kind of war trophy. This was common practice among the other kings of the day and Saul too wanted to share in this exalting of his victory. He also kept back some of the plunder of sheep and oxen which were designated by God for destruction. He insisted that he had been fully obedient, but what resulted was Samuel’s piercing question, “What then is this bleating of the sheep in my ears, and the lowing of the oxen which I hear?”, also, Samuel’s hacking to death of Agag (1 Samuel 15.14, 33). The Christian is commanded to “reckon yourselves to be dead indeed to sin… therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body, that you should obey it in its lusts. And do not present your members as instruments of unrighteousness to sin” (Romans 6:11,12-13). This speaks of an all-encompassing assault upon sin, and the subtlety of sin is such that the believer becomes convinced that somehow this doesn’t apply to him, or it’s a form of exaggeration and extremism which is unreasonable.
Beware of the “deceitfulness of sin” in all of its subtlety “since you have put off the old man with his deeds, and have put on the new man…” (Colossians 3:9-10).
Even though a believer is a new creature in Christ with a new nature, there still remains within him much of the remnants of sin. The Apostle Paul experienced this within his own life, writing, “I find then a law, that evil is present with me, the one who wills to do good” (Romans 7:21). This “law”, or this ever-present, often very powerful, influence of indwelling sin is characterized by its enmity against God, constantly working in the believer to keep him from communion with God and from obedience to the duties of the Christian life.
Our verse speaks of the “deceitfulness of sin.” This deceitfulness often manifests itself in subtlety. One characteristic of this subtlety of the operation of sin is to make the duties of our Christian life seem wearisome. The apostle Paul recognized this constant war within and wrote, “I discipline my body and bring it into subjection” (I Corinthians 9:27). We are exhorted as Christians to pray without ceasing, redeem the time, do all to the glory of God, exercise our gifts, and not to forsake assembling together. But for many believers, the remnants of sin rise up to argue for the weariness of this constant devotion and attention to duty. The believer is tempted to rationalize that this level of commitment is reserved for super Christians like Paul, or ministers, or missionaries. This line of thinking can even be aggravated when the believer looks at unbelievers in their seeming peace, pleasure and prosperity. They are tempted to echo the sentiments of the Psalmist who found himself in a similar situation and complained, “Surely I have cleansed my heart in vain” (Psalm 73:13). In the days of Isaiah, God complained regarding His people, “you have been weary of Me, O Israel!” (Isaiah 43:22). In the parable of the talents, the man who received just one talent justified to his master his ill use of the talent by stating, “Lord, I knew you to be a hard man, reaping where you have not sown, and gathering where you have not scattered seed” (Matthew 25:24). This man was ultimately condemned, but even for true believers this mindset can readily develop. Charles Spurgeon, in commenting on this passage said about the servant, “He judged his lord to be one who expected more of his servants than he had any right to look for,” further noting that it can happen for some that “their religion is their labour, not their delight; their God is their dread, not their joy.”
Another subtle manifestation of this deceitfulness of sin is a lulling of the believer into a kind of complacency, or a sense of “having arrived” in his Christian experience. This was remarkably illustrated in the life of David. In his days of being pursued by Saul, David was presented with a golden opportunity to kill him. Saul had come into the cave where David and his men were hiding in order to relieve himself. We read that David’s men encouraged him to seize the opportunity by saying, “This is the day of which the Lord said to you, ‘Behold I will deliver your enemy into your hand, that you may do to him as it seems good to you’.” They were encouraging David to kill Saul. David responded only by cutting off the corner of Saul’s robe, but “it happened afterward that David’s heart troubled him because he had cut Saul’s robe” (1 Samuel 24:4,5). What an extraordinarily tender conscience David possessed at the time to be so troubled for having only touched Saul’s garment. The reality that Saul was anointed by God as king so overwhelmed him, that he would not dare take matters into his own hands. And yet, later, after Saul was gone and David had received the kingship of all Israel as well as having established himself in Jerusalem, we see David having become complacent and gazing from his rooftop upon a woman bathing. It would seem that now that his major battles had been won, during which time he was so actively dependent upon God, he had then entered into a state of “having arrived,” thus becoming carelessly complacent, thus so easily slipping into terrible sin. Perhaps David had this danger of complacency in mind when he penned, “Now in my prosperity I said, ‘I shall never be shaken’” (Psalm 30:6). Jonah may very well have rationalized in his mind that his disobedience was acceptable when he so easily discovered and booked passage on a ship bound for Tarshish. He became complacent in his disobedience. There he was, fast asleep in the hold, the man sent to awaken Nineveh, being told by the pagan captain, “What do you mean, sleeper? Arise…” (Jonah 1:6). “Sleeper,” what an apt description of a complacent Chrisian.
There is another subtle working of sin which can influence the believer into a kind of formality. Religion becomes no longer the outworking of a love relationship with God, but an organized structure or systematic set of doctrines, rules and regulations. Like the Pharisees, they are deceived into thinking they can “tithe mint and rue and all manner of herbs, and pass by justice and the love of God.” The apostle Paul warned of those who speak with the tongues of men and of angels, have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, have all faith to remove mountains, bestow all their goods to feed the poor, and give their bodies to be burned, and yet have no love (Luke 11:42; 1 Corinthians 13:1-3). It is this cooling of love mixed with religious knowledge which results in this terrible state of formality. This seems to have been the snare into which the church at Ephesus fell. Jesus’ message to them was, “I know your works, your labor, your patience, and that you cannot bear those who are evil. And you have tested those who say they are apostles and are not, and have found them liars; and you have persevered and have patience, and have labored for My name’s sake and have not become weary. Nevertheless I have this against you, that you have left your first love” (Revelation 2:2-4). By all outward standards, they appeared to be contending earnestly for the faith, but there had developed an inner coolness or indifference to grace which manifested itself in a lack of love. This lack of love begins with a lack of love for God which is that old enmity coming forth from the remnants of sin. There may still be faithfulness, diligence and even zeal for the duties of the Christian life, and such a one can be deceived into measuring their spiritual health by their attention to these things. But this only further highlights the subtlety of this working of sin in the believer. He regularly goes to church, gives of his time, money and talents, even witnesses, and yet all of it is just formality if there is no love.
A further subtle working of the remnants of sin comes in the form of compromise. The mind is sometimes persuaded to reason that just a little indulgence of certain sin is somehow acceptable in the life of the believer. After all, seeming due diligence is being prayerfully applied in all other known areas of experience. The believer is deceived into thinking that a little indulgence in one small matter shouldn’t matter. But this is to give the enemy a foothold. The Canaanites who were not driven out of the land in the days of the conquest of the land under Joshua’s leadership became a snare to the people as they intermarried and adopted pagan Canaanite idolatry and worship (Judges 3:6). Saul was commanded by God to utterly destroy the Amalekites, but he was seduced in his pride to spare king Agag of the Amalekites as a kind of war trophy. This was common practice among the other kings of the day and Saul too wanted to share in this exalting of his victory. He also kept back some of the plunder of sheep and oxen which were designated by God for destruction. He insisted that he had been fully obedient, but what resulted was Samuel’s piercing question, “What then is this bleating of the sheep in my ears, and the lowing of the oxen which I hear?”, also, Samuel’s hacking to death of Agag (1 Samuel 15.14, 33). The Christian is commanded to “reckon yourselves to be dead indeed to sin… therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body, that you should obey it in its lusts. And do not present your members as instruments of unrighteousness to sin” (Romans 6:11,12-13). This speaks of an all-encompassing assault upon sin, and the subtlety of sin is such that the believer becomes convinced that somehow this doesn’t apply to him, or it’s a form of exaggeration and extremism which is unreasonable.
Beware of the “deceitfulness of sin” in all of its subtlety “since you have put off the old man with his deeds, and have put on the new man…” (Colossians 3:9-10).