1 Timothy 6:11 (ESV)
¹¹ But as for you, O man of God, flee these things. Pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, steadfastness, gentleness.

1 Timothy 6:6-10 is a familiar passage in which Paul discusses the danger of the love of money. A person who develops an obsession for money will most likely fall away from the faith. As a result, he will inflict upon himself many sorrows (1 Timothy 6:10). Paul’s advice to us is to flee these things. How can we give our feet to God? We can do so by running away from anything that will hinder us spiritually and stop us from serving God to the best of our ability. We do it by refusing to walk in counsel of the wicked or stand in the way of sinners (Psalms 1:1). Allow your feet to take you in the right direction, that is, away from sin, and things that lead to it, and closer to the things of God. To walk towards sin is to use members of our bodies as instruments of sin, the very thing that Paul told us not to do (Romans 6:12-13).

The devil wants you to downplay sin. He wants you to develop a tolerance for it because he knows that tolerance leads to acceptance, and acceptance lends to participation. This is why God advised Cain the way He did in Genesis 4:6-7.

⁶ “The LORD said to Cain, “Why are you angry, and why has your face fallen? 7 If you do well, will you not be accepted? And if you do not do well, sin is crouching at the door. Its desire is for you, but you must rule over it.”

Being angry is not inherently sinful. However, to allow it to linger is to invite sin into your life. This is what, at least in part, God was trying to warn Cain not to do. God would accept him if he would only stop being so angry about his rejection and start doing what God demanded. But, if he, instead, would hang on to his anger and pride, sin would be crouching at the door. We do not want sin at the door of our lives, do we? If not, we should not flirt with sin by getting as close to it as we can without sinning. When we do that, sin, like a crouching lion ready to pounce upon his prey, is just waiting for us to get a little too close. Instead of flirting with sin, we should turn and run from it as fast as our feet will take us. Do not forget what Paul said. “Abstain from every form of evil” (1 Thessalonians 5:22).

To get too close to sin is to demonstrate a serious flaw spiritually. True Christians hate sin. Jesus hated sin so much that He was willing to make the ultimate sacrifice on the cross to defeat it. How can we claim to be like Jesus, which is the very description of a Christian, if we do not abhor sin like He does? The truth is, sin should be offensive to us. It was sin that made it necessary for Jesus to suffer and die on the cross. Furthermore, we should fear the power of sin and the consequences of giving in to it. Make no mistake about it, sin (personified) is our greatest adversary. There is nothing in this world that is more deceiving, devastating, dangerous and destructive than sin. Sin stops one from having a personal prayer life. It stops one from experiencing God’s providential provisions and enjoying the benefits of God’s blessings. Can you not see the devastating effects of sin? When you invite sin into your life, it may result in pleasure for a while, but in the end, it will cause you to plummet into the abyss of spiritual darkness. Sin will ruin your soul and cause you to spend eternity in a devil’s hell. That sounds like something from which you should flee, does it not? Give your feet to God by running away from sin as fast as you can.

As you wind down for the night, think on these things.