The Perverse Power

Oswald Chambers makes this astounding statement in his devotional My Utmost for His Highest for June 24th.

“It is not being reconciled to the fact of sin that produces all the disasters in life.”

If you have never read Chambers, you may find such a statement to be too strong. I have been reading this devotional for over 30 years almost on a daily basis. I have come to see that he does not exaggerate. He is exactly right.

Recently a Governor of a southern state in the USA was found to be in Argentina with his lover instead of hiking in the mountains. This same governor has been all over the news in recent months because of his conservative stand on everything from money to morals.

According to Chambers this sad and tragic disaster in his life can be traced to “not being reconciled to the fact of sin.” Is that true? I believe it is. He underestimated the perverse power of sin in a human heart.

Listen to Paul’s words from Romans 7:15 where he is revealing just how perverse the presence of sin is in all of us. I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do. Here is another reading of the same statement. “I do what I clearly condemn in others.”

The southern governor who was in Argentina with his lover had been terribly hard on Bill Clinton when he fell into sin. What the governor failed to take into consideration is that sin becomes more active in us when we set our eyes on the perverseness and disaster of sin in others. This is how the disasters of life a perpetuated among us.

When we do clearly condemn something in others, we may be right about the wrong behavior, but we must only comment in humility because we are truly aware of the perverse power of sin that works in us all. When we condemn as if we are truly different, sin knows exactly how it will lead us into the “disasters of life” we thought were for others but not for us.

Just as we must be reconciled to the fact of sin, we must be reconciled to God through Christ. We must become even more convinced that Christ in us is greater than all the perverse power of sin. Read Romans 8 and you will see that concentrating on Jesus will free us from sin. Concentrating on the sins of others will only awaken the perverse power. A mind turned toward the flesh is death. A mind turned toward the Spirit of Christ is life.

As you follow the news about the failures of others, be sure you take no joy in the disasters in others lives. Sin is too close to us all for such condemnation without humility. Pray for those who fall and turn quickly in mind toward the only sure hope of avoiding such a disaster - Christ in you.