Let's Talk About Sin

::title drops like a weight through the floor::

Specifically, idolatry.

I've probably sat through 30 Sunday School lessons, sermons, or "chapel time"-like-things about idolatry. They all follow roughly the same formula, and end in similarly unsatisfactory ways.
Most people define idolatry as "anything that becomes more important to you than God," or some variant thereof. While I technically agree with that definition, I'm here to expand the view of the definition.
Let's hustle down to Colossians 3 and read a little something I discovered a while back.

Colossians 3:5

"Therefore, put to death your members which are on the earth; fornication, uncleanness, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry."

When I read this for the first time (really read it for the first time, that is), I did a double-take. "Whoa," I thought, "this changes things." The little "which" on the end of the verse redefined sin for me in the space of 5 seconds.

Covetousness (or "greed", in other translations. I use NKJV), I suddenly realized, is somewhat of a "blanket" sin. Wanting something. Don't all sins, after all, begin with a desire?

Theft - wanting an object

Lust - wanting someone's body (this is also adultery/fornication, when Lust is acted upon)

Rebellion - wanting your own way, wanting to be in control instead of someone else

Lying - wanting to cover up for something (usually another sin), wanting to look better than you do

Murder - wanting someone dead, wanting to keep someone quiet, wanting revenge, etc. there are a lot of desires that spur on murder.

Revenge - wanting to get back at someone.

Boasting - wanting others to think you're "great" or better than them

Embezzlement - wanting money (I included this because the Bible does too, in several of the Great Sin Lists that Paul is so good at)

Etc. 

Even what some call the "Ultimate Sin", the "sin of rejecting Christ", results from the desire of self-sufficiency, or something like.

So as we're strolling along discussing sin, we stumble upon an elementary logic trail:

So, let's say that all sin is covetousness.

According to the Colossians, all covetousness is idolatry.

Therefore, all sin is idolatry.

This makes absolute OODLES of sense!
BeCAUSE...

If you desire something (action, word, or object) that you know is against God's law, and act upon that desire anyway, you are essentially saying "This [action, word, or object] is more important to me than honoring God."

How did we define idolatry, again? "Anything that becomes more important to you than God," or some variant thereof.
Ding!

This particular revelation has kept me away from a lot of my "habitual sins", lately. I'll be tempted, about to commit the sin out of weakness - when all of a sudden, in the corner of my mind, a thought pops up, not unlike a Gmail chat box (STOP YOUR SNICKERING!!! I CAN HEAR YOU!!!).
It's like this:

Really puts things in perspective, doesn't it?
Does me.

Love Does Not Rejoice In Iniquity,

-=Brenna=-

P.S. Stop laughing and admit that what I just did with the chat box was amazing.


P.P.S. I don't care about having a life, stop telling me to get one. ::sulks::