Boa Constrictor (Boidae) ~ Sin

i’ve been memorizing the Sermon On the Mount with a group of friends.  In Matthew 5 Jesus says something rather confusing: “If your right eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it away.  It’s better to lose one of your members than for your entire body to go into Hell.  If your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away.  It’s better to lose one of your members than for your entire body to be thrown into Hell.”  Is He really telling us to gouge our eyes out and chop off various body parts when we sin?  If so, i should have lost my tongue the moment i learned to speak, and my eyes the moment i learned to see.  i believe Jesus is not telling us to literally remove our body parts (if you are skoptsy, stop it!).  He is using hyperbole to emphasize a greater teaching: the hatred of sin.

i heard a story once about a woman with a pet snake.  This wasn’t just any pet snake; it was a boa constrictor.  She’d had the snake for decades, and the creature was very dear to her.  She let it roam free in the house and even let the snake sleep with her each night.  At one point the snake began losing weight rapidly.  The woman was concerned and sought help from a veterinarian.  The vet listened carefully to the woman’s story; and when she finished he asked: “Madam, do you happen to sleep with your snake?”
“Why yes!” the woman exclaimed.
“In that case I have a disturbing diagnosis for you.  I believe your snake is sizing you up and starving itself because it is preparing to eat you in your sleep.”

Sin is the giant snake we sleep with.  It is waiting to swallow us whole.  It does not have good intentions for us.  WE CANNOT KEEP IT AS A PET.

When we read what the Bible has to say about sin, a common theme arises.

“If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.” (1John 1v8)
“But each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire.  Then desire when it has conceived gives birth to sin, and sin when it is fully grown brings forth death.  Do not be deceived, my beloved brothers.” (James 1v14-5)
“Sin, seizing an opportunity through the commandment, deceived me and through it killed me.” (Romans 7v11)
“Exhort one another every day, as long as it is called 'today', that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin.” (Hebrews 3v13)


Sin is deceitful.  It tricks us and lies to us.  ‘Giving it up’ is not a biblical idea; it’s easy to go back to something we simply walk away from.  It is only by hating sin, by seeing it for what it truly is and loathing it, that we can be free from its clutches.


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