Suffering from sin. . .

It often seems simplistic and naive to say the suffering flows from sin but the reality is that sin is not simply about doing wrong but also suffering for it.  Sin is not simply a theological problem but a life problem.  Our sinful thoughts, words, and deeds come back to haunt us with suffering and pain that is real. Our sinful natures have so screwed up our thinking that we presume if the commandments went away we would happy in the pursuit of what we want unfettered by guilt or shame.  It is not that way at all.  What the commandments forbid is not some theoretical evil out there but the stuff that hurts and harms us in this mortal life as well as eternally.  

How odd it is that we think that God is out to steal away our happiness with our freedom.  How strange it is that we presume that rules against adultery or theft or defamation or jealousy or disrespect are the problem and not the things themselves.  We suffer for our sins not because God is zapping us from on high but because the sins themselves cause earthly problems and have dire consequences for this life and its happiness.  How is happy to worry about the faithfulness of our spouse or to poison our relationships with our parents or to be known as a person of lies and slander or to be consumed with desire for what is not ours?  The suffering is not caused by the denial of these desires but the desires themselves.  They ruin our relationships and steal from us our reputations and make us fearful of others.  Sin is the cause of suffering and not imagined suffering but real pain, sorrow, and trouble.

St. Gregory the Great wrote of the three stages of temptation:  suggestion, delight, and consent. Scripture speaks of this in James 1:  But each one is tempted when by his own evil desires he is lured away and enticed. Then after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, gives birth to death. Do not be deceived, my beloved brothers. Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights...  Look at the temptation and fall of Eve.  Lucifer offers a mere suggestion to Eve, that if she ate the fruit from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, she would not die but would become like God, knowing right from wrong.  It seems like such a little thing compared to the grand evils of our modern age.  Just a little and rather subtle suggestion becomes the source of so much suffering.  We do the same thing all the time.  We assume God has either lied to us or kept things from us, that we can become gods by ignoring or disobeying the one true God, and that knowing right and wrong will lead us to choosing right from wrong.  In the end, Eve not only ignored what she had known from God but began to despise it and to be dissatisfied with what God had given and told her.  In the end, instead of running away from Adam, she shared her suffering with him and brought him down with her.  That is also what sin does.  Our suffering is not only ours but it belongs to those whom we love.  

Goodness and virtue are not constricting but freeing.  Sin refuses to allow us to see that and so we view everything except our desires with suspicion and doubt and fear.  The path to freedom is not through surrendering to desire but through living self-controlled, upright, and godly lives as those born again of water and the Spirit.  This is St. Paul's appeal to us.  What is good, right, true, godly, and righteous is not the end to our happiness but its beginning.  But, as Luther once observed, the old adam is a good swimmer and even though we are looking away from Satan he is always looking at us.  So we fight the good fight, contending not for a personal righteousness which will minimize our need of Christ but to live as the people of God we are in Christ.  This is our freedom and apart from Christ there is only bondage.