Sin is not doing bad things. Sin is committing adultery against God. Sin is loving anything more than God.

The perfect example of this would be marriage. As soon as one party in the married relationship loves another man or woman more than his/her spouse, the marriage breaks down. I know many people stay married even after their love and commitment are gone for benefit reasons, but that is completely missing the point of marriage.

In the early chapters of Jeremiah, God laments that His people have forsaken Him and gone after other gods. In other words, He feels like a jilted lover. God is not angry because people have done wrong, but He is angry because they have rejected Him and gone after other gods.

“How can I pardon you?
Your children have forsaken me
and have sworn by those who are no gods.
When I fed them to the full,
they committed adultery
and trooped to the houses of whores.”
Jeremiah 5:7

What is it that we love more than God? Let me list some of our popular secret lovers:
– Money: When the bottom line is who will pay me the most money, we are following money, not God.
– Social circle: When our social circle is the source of our joy and grief, we know it has replaced God.
– Family: Are all our hopes and dreams riding on our spouse or children? That’s adultery.
– Power: Some people care more about power than money. If the desire to rule over others is greater than the desire to be ruled by God, then it’s sin.
– Sex: Anything outside of marriage or before marriage is putting it before God.

What is the remedy against all these foreign lovers? It is to know the true Lover and be in love with Him!

“I must have my heart happy in God! Or I’m bound to find it elsewhere…”

PH