Sin Is like a Lion

While I was in the Service, I overheard a fellow worker tell his friend that before he was married, he never would believe that other women could possibly tempt him.  He thought he would never want to have an affair.  But after a year or two of marriage he was meeting regularly with another woman.

His marriage belief mirrored my own, and although I never had an affair with another woman, there have been times I could have if I wasn't prepared for the possibility.  The guy talking was not prepared for faithfulness in part because he never thought he would be tempted to have an affair. He thought being married to a good woman would keep his wandering eyes focused solely on his wife.  But only a year or two into his marriage and he was already straying.

There are reasons this guy strays.

First, as mentioned in my last blog, there was a disconnect in his life.  Temptation caught him off guard.  He didn't think he would ever be interested in someone outside of marriage.  His firm belief that marriage would bring sexual contentment was not a belief that was real.  In time he, like most of us, found that others outside of marriage could be interesting and sometimes very attractive. 

He didn't expect this to be the case and so he let himself follow his feelings.  Perhaps as he flirted with the girl in question he thought he could stop it any time he wanted.  Perhaps even as they began to embrace each other, he continued to believe that he would never go too far.  But in the end he was playing with an untamed lion that he could not control.


We are all tempted.  Even Jesus was tempted like us (but without sin).  We all have sexual urges and those urges are like a lion that must be kept in line or else it will take over.  When God warned Cain about his anger and jealousy, He said, "Sin is crouching at the door, eager to control you. But you must subdue it and be its master (Genesis 4:7).”  The imagery is that of a lion crouching and waiting to rip and devour.  

The disconnect blinds us to the lion that is there.  In pride, or in sheer ignorance we convince ourselves that the lion does not exist in us, or even more, we convince ourselves that the lion is no more than a kitty and that we would never have an issue in controlling our urges.

In order to control our urges - the lion within - we need to understand that it is there and that we are not above failure.  We need to know that within each one of us there is a lion that needs to be kept at bay.  We need to understand that there is a lion and that the lion is not to be messed with, coddled, pet, teased, played with, or embraced.  The lion must be acknowledged in order for it to be tamed and there are tools to keep the lion tamed, which will be addressed soon.