Sin is the improper allocation of God’s perfect design. Sin is not founded on evil but instead it is founded in extending the natural desires placed in us beyond God’s intention which is why sin is evil. This is why we are so easily deceived, this is why we are so easily convinced that what we are doing is just an extension of who we are, because it is.

The foundation of everything we desire is perfection, but the way we live it out is perverted.

I know this may be a stretch for some of you, it is for me, but I have to come to grips with this concept if I am ever going to address my sins. Paul plainly states:

I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do. And if I do what I do not want to do, I agree that the law is good. As it is, it is no longer I myself who do it, but it is sin living in me. For I know that good itself does not dwell in me, that is, in my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. For I do not do the good I want to do, but the evil I do not want to do—this I keep on doing. Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it. Romans 7:15-20 (NIV)

Paul’s fight is our fight. We all desire to do what is good but it is perverted by our sin nature. Because of this we live out our God-given desires far beyond their intended resolution.

If we dig down deep we will find that at the root of every sinful act is the perfection of God-given desires but we rarely dig down that deep and therefore find ourselves asking why? Why do I do the things I don’t want to do and don’t do the things I want to do?

It all started in a garden with a piece of fruit.

I want to be like God, act like God in the flesh, live life making the perfect choices. This is the perfect desire placed in me and the perfect desire placed in creation from the beginning. To know the difference between good and evil is not, at the core, wrong. This is the perfect desire but Adam and Eve lived out this perfect desire in the perverted way. The snake played on the God-given foundational trait to live out life in a perfect manner to convince Adam and Eve that they would be like God if they did what God told them not to do. God was to be their personal guide in the area of right and wrong. Because of His personal guidance they would not need to personally know what was right and wrong.

We like to convince ourselves that we are not like Adam and Eve. If God said no then we would also say no. By not digging deep and finding out the root of their sin we allow ourselves to be vulnerable to the same devious schemes of the devil. Satan said “For God knows that when you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” Genesis 3:5 (NIV) Do you see it? Who wouldn’t desire to be like God? The problem was not in the desire but in the perversion of the desire by the evil one so that the end justified the means.

Perverted Perfection.

No one wants to feel like life is spinning out of control so we fight for control or give up. In our everyday responsibilities, in our families and in our ministries we all want to avoid being out of control. It doesn’t take long before we are labelled as controlling or lazy. We either give up on stopping the whirlwind of life or try with everything we have to control it.

Most people don’t like controlling people nor do they enjoy lazy people who couldn’t bother to try to address anything. To be controlling is sinful and to be lazy and disinterested is just as sinful and yet they are both perversions of the desires God gave us. We have the God-given desire to see life as under control and the God-given desire to give up on controlling it. The two put together in a Godly manner leads to fulfilling our desires in a Godly way.

God’s way is perfection our way is perversion.                                                                         

At the root of our desires is God’s desire for us. We desire that life is under control, God desires to be in control. We desire to give up because we can’t get it under control, God desires to be given control. We miss it. We look at sin as horrific, which we should. We look at the sins we commit as intolerable by God, which they are. We look at the reason behind what we do as being birthed out of evil which it is not.

The reason we do what we do is that Satan has taken the desires God intended to drive us to Him and to His perfect plan for His creation and made it about fulfilling those desires outside of Him and His perfect plan. For example we have the desire for physical and emotional intimacy. God’s plan is to achieve this through the commitment of marriage, Satan’s perversion is anybody, anytime. We desire to make something of ourselves. God’s plan was for us to prosper as we live out His calling. Satan’s perversion is for us to seek prosperity doing whatever it takes to get ahead.

Are there things that you do that you shouldn’t? Maybe there is a God-given desire perverted by Satan’s way of doing things that needs to be understood and addressed.