Proverbs 10:10 He who winks the eye causes trouble, and a babbling fool will be ruined.
“What’s the harm?” These are seductive words. How many people are sitting in jail or have dealt with unwanted pregnancies after submitting to that little phrase? How many bankrupt people brought on through scams are there, or addicted addicts craving the day away because they stepped into the quick-sanded affect listening to “What’s the harm?” Prov. 14:12 There is a way that seems right to a person, but its end is the way to death.
The enemy of our soul and those who are out to influence us into breaking God’s laws have a smarmy way of stating the question – “What’s the harm?” This is said while pretending to be genuinely attentive to our needs. “Go ahead, have another drink – what’s the harm? You only go around once. Hab. 2:15 Woe to the one who supplies his neighbor with a drink! You are forcing your bottle on him, making him drunk so you can see them naked. Come on, try it, what can it hurt?”
Temptations will come in all forms and from all types of people in our life – even our closest friends and family members. It is up to us individually not to submit to the words that detract us from what God has put in our hearts to be and to do. We belong to God through Jesus and we were created for His purpose and not for the will of others.
Our resolve to walk with God can be influenced in the wrong way when we are not attentive to the leading of the Holy Spirit. When we are not listening to the words of life God is saying to our soul from our inner being, we can end up resisting the Holy Spirit and therefore vexing Him. Gal. 5:16 So I say, let the Holy Spirit guide your lives. Then you won’t be doing what your sinful nature craves.
We want to be sensitive and obedient to what God leads us into because it is birthed of God. We never want to be the one tempting someone into sin so that we can have our own way as this is displeasing to the Lord Jesus. Luke 17:1 One day Jesus said to his disciples, “There will always be temptations to sin, but what sorrow awaits the person who does the tempting!
So what’s the harm you say? The harm is that causing someone to sin through manipulation or stealthy tricks that cause a person to fall after Jesus Christ has sacrificed Himself for their sins is a fool’s game. God will take it personally. The Lord knows the intent of every heart, whether the intention is good or evil. Jer. 17:9 The heart is more deceitful than all else and is desperately sick; Who can understand it? God knows us and He knows our motivations clearly.
Keeping our lives clean through faith in Christ and walking without deceit in our hearts will help us be strong in righteousness when we are tempted. When someone says, “What’s the harm?” we will be able to tell them on the spot what the harm is. There will be no fumbling of words or difficulty in explaining the hurts, harms, and casualties that will come by disobeying what God has said “No” to. Joel Osteen said, “Don’t put a question mark where God has put a period.” Yes, I agree wholeheartedly.
We have been saved and delivered from death through the cross of Jesus Christ. Let us keep going forward in the joy of the Lord’s incredible life-giving gift. Stay blessed and stay in the righteousness of our God because that is where real life and happiness is. Psalm 32:1 Happy are those whose sins are forgiven, whose wrongs are pardoned.
Hi Phil
I have quoted Dr. Seuss, Friedrich Nietzsche, Pope Francis, John Lennon, Mick Jagger, Oscar Wilde, and many other controversial characters in my blogs.
If I like what is said and it blesses me, then I post the truth of the saying. I heard some people actually quote me. Ha! Go figure:)
I was looking at the photo we took in Guatemala the other day. That was a fun ministry trip. Blessings bro.
1: Matt 8:6 is a good one too. "… I anyyone causes one of these little ones–those who believe in me–to stumble, it would be better for them to have a large millstone hung around their neck and to be drowned in the depths of the sea…"
2. I would stay away from quoting Osteen. He has publicly denied Christ as the only way to the Father. Just sayin'… :)