Exposed Iniquity

Once Peter Lord was in front of a congregation to preach. He invited a young lady to come up to the platform with him. He was holding a cup of water, and he asked her to shake his arm which was holding the cup very hard. She reluctantly shook it, and water was splashed in every direction.

Peter asked her what had made the glass spill water. She replied that it spilled because she shook his arm. He corrected her: the reason the cup spilled water was because water was in the cup.

The lesson he offered through the illustration is that we do not sin because people abuse or annoy us, but because there is sin in us. The term frequently used for this latent, invisible sin is iniquity. It is lurking in our hearts and minds until it is provoked to become manifest, and then it spurs us to behave under its influence.

No one can cause something to come out of you that is not already in you. If your responses to someone being treated better than you, or someone mistreating you, or some opportunity to do something wrong when no one is looking are to sin, that is a work of your flesh by Paul’s description of stupid behaviors in Galatians 5:19-21.

If they can influence your behavior or thoughts, some are already in you. The Holy Spirit wants to give you power over them, and He wants to remove them.

Now to Him who is able to protect you from stumbling and to make you stand in the presence of His glory, blameless and with great joy, to the only God our Savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, power, and authority before all time, now, and forever. Amen.

(Jude 24-25 Holman Christian Standard Bible®©)