Article November 23, 1981 Issue

We can stop sinning

GRANT C. BUTLER

Many people today sincerely want to stop sinning. But how often have we heard that we live in a permissive society where sin is normal and immorality an accepted fact of life? How seldom do people associate hatred, dishonesty, selfishness—any type of thinking or acting disobedient to the law of God—as sinful and potentially as harmful and destructive as lust or sensuality?

Fortunately, deeply implanted thought-patterns and negative thinking habits can be overcome. Christian Science provides the spiritual ammunition that shoots down all of sin's deceitful arguments. It proves there is never any reason to accept sin as natural, normal, or unavoidable. It shows us that sin in any disguise can be detected, admitted to be an error of thought, and finally destroyed through prayer. As we deny the belief in a material, sensual mind and obey the commandment to have one God, one Mind, we deprive sin of any mind or power. Then we can stop sinning. The Bible makes it clear: "If any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new." ^{II Cor. 5:17.}

True freedom and the strength to resist sin come from a spiritual understanding of God and His creation, from the knowledge that sin is never pleasurable and never a part of man's real being. Sin will be destroyed in our thinking by the vigorous denial of it, the strong affirmation of man's pure being in God, and our solid determination to live according to God's law.

Send a comment to the editors

NEXT IN THIS ISSUE

Article

An attitude of gratitude