But while he lingered, the men seized him and his wife and his two daughters by the hand, for the Lord was merciful to him; and they brought him forth and set him outside the city and left him there. – Genesis 19:16, Amplified Bible (AMP)

I had lunch with a dear friend the other day, and during our fellowship he told me about the troubles of an old high school friend of his. The woman – whom I will call Jane – is in her late thirties. She has been addicted to the pleasures of sin since high school, and due to her enslavement to bodily pleasure, she has wrecked her life. She has no home of her own, so she jumps from boyfriend to boyfriend in order to find shelter. She has had two children out of wedlock, neither of which she has custody of. She can’t hold a job. She consistenly lies and manipulates in order to get her way. She has stolen from her own mother. And, not long ago, she attempted suicide. 

After the suicide attempt, my friend reached out to her with the loving hand of the Gospel. At times she seemed receptive to his efforts to help, but in the end it was obvious she was telling my friend what he wanted to hear so that he would help her in ways she wanted to be helped. In short, Jane rejected the rescue offer my friend gave her, and it remains to be seen whether Jane will ever exchange sin as her master for King Jesus. We pray that she will!

The chains of sin are tremendously strong, and Jane’s life exemplifies this. If she could detach herself from the temporary emotional thrills of her sin, she’d recognize in a heartbeat just how destructive her addictions are. But, blinded by pleasure, she can’t see the wrecks she has made of her life and of the lives of others. She can only see the pleasure in the next thrill. 

In Genesis 19, Lot and his family were no different. So addicted to the pleasures of Sodom that they lingered there, the two angels sent to destroy Sodom had to first thrust Lot and his family out of the city before pulling the trigger. Had God not forcibly ripped them from the city, Lot and his family would have been destroyed, and they would have been destroyed because they could only see the pleasure in the next thrill. 

Were Lot and his family saved? Lot, at least, was, as 2 Peter 2:7 identifies him as “just [justified, righteous] Lot.” This means, of course, that Chrisitans who let their guard down are just as prone as the unsaved to become enslaved to the pleasures of sin. Paul echoed this reality in 2 Timothy 4:10 when he wrote, “For Demas hath forsaken me, having loved this present world…” No doubt, Christ is able to break any bonds that sin can place upon us, but I think it is safe to say that everyone would be better served by us not becoming bound by sin in the first place. 

There will be many times in your life when your flesh will tempt you to try something the Holy Spirit says you shouldn’t. Don’t be fooled by the sinful whisper of, “Just try it this once. It won’t be a big deal.”  The first step towards Sodom is the hardest, but each subsequent step gets a little bit easier. You can avoid Sodom altogether by not taking a step in that direction in the first place. If you do take that first step, each step that follows will thrill your flesh that much more, and each thrill will morph into another cord of bondage that God will have to snap.

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