The Deceitfulness of Sin

But exhort one another every day, as long as it is called “today”, that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin – Hebrews 3:13

Glad to have you here once again to read my blog. I read Hebrews 3:13 some time ago and was intrigued by the phrase the deceitfulness of sin. This blog post is basically a summary of my thoughts on the phrase . It is my prayer that as you read this post, you come to the realization that sin is deceitful and will never fulfil its meagre promises.

• Deceitfulness refers to the quality of misleading and giving the wrong impression. It is the tendency to be deceptive and dishonest. 
• Sin is said to possess the quality of deceitfulness. This implies that it doesn’t deliver on the promises it makes to you. 
• Sin is alluring, tempting and attractive for a number of reasons including the following:
  • It promises long lasting pleasure. 
  • It promises relief
  • It promises secrecy
  • It promises security 
  • It promises independence and freedom
  • It promises happiness
  • It promises painlessness
  • It promises everlasting excitement
  • It promises peace / peace of mind
  • It promises to serve you rather than to be served
• The consequences of sin are its secret promises. The seeming promises of sin are actually fake marketing campaigns. It’s like the screen saver of a computer and the appearance of the desktop. Once you touch your mouse or the touchpad, the screen saver disappears and gives way for the appearance of the desktop background. This is the relationship between the promises sin makes you and the actual consequences of sin. 
• According to the verse under discussion, sin has consistently proven to fail at delivering on any of its promises. The deceitfulness of sin points to sin’s lack of integrity; it cannot keep its word even if it tried. 
• Time and time again, we all fall for the allure of sin and just give in to its demands. In our hearts, we sort of harbour a slight hope that sin could be miraculously truthful or honest to us and grant us our wishes or the things it promises. 
• The reason why we are so tempted by sin is that we confer on sin God-qualities. One of which is “goodness”. But sin is not good. 
• Sin is consequential; every single sin is consequential. 
• Some of the consequences of sin include:
  • Physical death
  • Eternal death
  • Open and secret shame
  • Guilt 
  • Sickness
  • Depression, anxiety, sadness etc. 
  • Servitude to the flesh and sin
  • Loss of glory and favour with God and man
  • Hardness of heart
  • Rebellion (especially against God)
• Sin hardens you or hardens your heart by rendering you insensitive to the promptings of the Holy Spirit and the word of God. Pursuing the ephemeral pleasures of sin will render the individual numb to the nudge of the Mighty Holy Spirit therefore resulting in either “backsliddenness” or a falling away from the faith. 
• Sin is costly. It is so costly that dealing with it required divine, holy and eternal blood. Jesus had to come and die for the sins of the world (past, present and future). That’s how costly sin is. 
• Sin has the most bitter after-taste. However, its allure is as strong, hence it is able to imprison people and subject them to a repeated cycle between chokehold and slight relief we like to call addiction. 
• Enslavement to sin starts as a willful action. The chains of sin are light when you decide to put them around your neck, wrists or feet. But soon enough you will realise how heavy they are to shake off or even cast off. 
• Therefore, we shouldn’t joke with sin especially because it has eternal consequences. 
• Sin is not a thing to be toyed with because it is capable of ruining lives and leading people out of the presence of God and straight to hell. 
• Sin must be avoided like a plague. Because, to put it mildly, it is a plague or even worse than a plague. For whereas plagues may have no eternal consequences, sin does.