The Problem with Guilty Pleasures

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I have seen it and heard it over and over again, "This book is my guilty pleasure for the month" or "That movie was my guilty pleasure for the week." I think that there isn't a single person who has not admitted to a guilty pleasure or two. But, when it comes to sin, believers cannot afford to entertain one single thing that would cost them their walk with Christ.

Sin is costly and almost always uncontrollable. It would be like trying to hold a live electric wire while standing in a puddle of water. You might be okay, but you probably won't be. But, even if you don't get electrocuted, how foolish can you possibly be? Truth be told, person aftter person will tell you how dangerous it was to dabble in sin. They had no idea it would send a type of "220 volt electricity" searing through them. At least as deadly to the soul as it would be to the body.

The problem is that sin is not something we can dabble in. We were not created that way. For everyone who gets away without being affected, there are many more who succumb to its allure. Sin hooks and keeps you. Why? Its because of a chemical in our brains called "dopamine." Because of that, in order for us to get the same feeling we got the first time, it will take another step farther down the path to enslavement. You must go farther and indulge more to get the same impact. Sin is that way. It only gives that much pleasure the first time. From then on, the slavery begins to take hold as more and more is needed to bring pleasure.

Forbes magazine helps us understand why this happens; it's called a "diminishing return":

A diminishing return is when a large quantity of something is not proportionately satisfying as a small quantity. For example, eating a single piece of cake is satisfying; eating ten slices of cake is not ten times as satisfying. Each subsequent slice will be less satisfying than the last.

That is how we were built, to crave more and more while all the while getting less and less satisfaction. That is probably a function of the fallen, sinful nature we all succumb to.

In the Bible, Romans 6 deals with not only a lifestyle of sin, but also the desire we have to occasionally fall back into sin. The question is not, "Do we?" It is, "Should we?" That is why the Spirit of God inspired Paul to write this soul-searching question:

What then? Should we sin because we are not under law but under grace? (Romans 6:15a HCSB)

So, should we? Here's our answer:

Absolutely not! (Romans 6:15b HCSB)

Why? Here's where the Bible understands more about the human condition than the most recent of magazine articles. It tells us about diminishing returns and what happens to us as a result:

Don't you know that if you offer yourselves to someone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of that one you obey-either of sin leading to death or of obedience leading to righteousness? (Romans 6:16 HCSB)

We crave what we partake in. We become slaves of whatever we gives ourselves to. That is why even guilty pleasures, no matter how trivial they may seem at the time, must never include sin. Sin brings with it enslavement. As followers of Christ, there is only one course of action, submission to Someone who loves and cares for us more than anyone else could, the Lord Jesus. He has given us new life to do His will and live for Him. By following Him, we become more of what we were intended to be and less in need of any guilty pleasures.

Pastor Trey Rhodes

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