I was thinking about my childhood on the farm. As is normal in farm life, there were a couple times when we had to put an animal down. Seriously, we had to take an animal out back and put its life to rest. I know it sounds terrible but the circumstances always left us with no other options. Whether it was a rabid dog or a dying horse, my dad would calmly handle the situation. That is what made me think of Dwight Schrute, the character from
The Office. Dwight owns a beet farm and the banter of the show regularly references his cold-hearted antics. In one episode he kills his girlfriend's cat, purposefully, and places it in the freezer. He doesn't even bat an eye. Now that is funny!
So there is a concept in the Bible about putting sin to death. The authorized version of the bible translates the Greek word "thanatoo" into the English word "mortify." Literally, it means put to death. The word mortify is found in a couple places in the New Testament, and the most notable is probably Romans 8:13 where it says, "For if you live according to the flesh you will die, but if by the Spirit you put to death [mortify] the deeds of the body, you will live" (ESV).
Here is my insight: Pull the trigger. Too often I think we manage our sin. I think we take a rabid dog (metaphor for our sin) out back with the intentions of shooting it. Then we remember all the fond memories with our pet and we bring it back home with us. We try to set up some healthy boundaries and even medicate the dog with the hopes of cure. But, the dog eventually turns on us. That is how sin works. If we are unwilling to kill it, the sin eventually turns on us. The situation grows much worse then if we would have dealt with it swiftly.
With sin you need to mortify it immediately. When sin crops up you starve, kill, shoot, dismember, and eradicate it. Do not simply repress sin by hiding it or managing it. Kill it. Do not let it live. Cut off its life source. Change your habits and patterns of life to give it no hope of living. If you are unwilling to totally put to death your sin, then do not be surprised when that sin dominates you. Sin will turn on you and, like a rabid dog, it will sink its ugly teeth in you to destroy you.
Look to Schrute for motivation and kill that thing.
