so that darkness will not overtake you

Yesterday, my attention was drawn by Gen4:7 and the description of sin. We think of sin as an action. "I sinned yesterday." We think of sin as a noun. "Jesus died for my sins." We think of sin as an adjective. "Yesterday, my behavior was quite sinful." But we don't think of sin as a pronoun.

Gen4:7 says sin is crouched at the door. Gen4:7 says sin has a desire to get you. You might consider this speech to be simply a turn of phrase in the same vein as "opportunity knocks". But that would obscure the living creature that sin, in fact, is.

What if sin were like bacteria? Every living creature on earth is infused with millions of bacteria. This explains how innocent babies are born sinful in the same manner they are born with bacteria. Sin is this living thing inside you that grows. And as any addict of any sin can tell you, that growth is often unstoppable.

What the Christian walk actually is is the regimen needed to cut back the growth of the beast. He doesn't call Himself the Great Physician for nothing. Our new bodies in Christ are just that -- bodies made without the wicked bacteria. Something to think about.