Abuse

"We are in an abusive relationship with sin," said my Bible study companion, "thinking that which harms us holds the most promise/good for us."  It is classic trauma syndrome.

We go to sin out of some unmet need, thinking it will satisfy, fulfill or complete the need.  We keep trying it, even though it harms us.  Such sin is its own hell, with us cycling through it repeatedly.  We can even love the sin because we have invested our deepest hopes in it.  We pet and protect it, believing at some point it will actually satisfy our need, even save us from ourselves.

We are afraid to cast it down, for fear that in its absence we would have nothing or be nothing without it.  Even when shown God's way, we are so afraid of changing, even when the sin is now our enemy, the source of our demise.

God's hope, true hope, is filled with the unknown - unknown good and good-for-us.  The prospect of good is so alien to us, though, that we cannot even distinguish what is good and right.  So, we stay with and stay dependent on the sin and its pain because it is, at least, predictable.

Paul spoke it so well in Romans 7:14-25 about his (and our) addiction to our own demise by participating in sin.  We are at war with our very selves.  "Thank God, there is hope." Paul says because the answer does not lie with us, "The answer is in Jesus Christ."