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Let Us Take Heed, Lest We Fall
By James Pruch
October 23, 2007
There is a man who runs races. He runs marathons-for fun, for pride, for money. It is his life. This man has trained harder than all other runners. He has conditioned his lungs and legs to withstand the most grueling pain during that final stretch. He has completed dozens of marathons. He has won every race; no one has come close to challenging him. He has been at the pinnacle of running, yet as with anything else, more races remain. As he trains for another race, his partner pushes him harder and harder. The pain is great, yet so is the reward. The burning in his back, his legs, his feet, his lungs, and his mind is worth it when he crosses the finish line. One day, though, the runner says to his partner, “I’ve done so well. I’ve won so many races. Will I not also win this one? I won’t train today.” Two days later, the runner says, “I will take the weekend off. I’ve worked too hard.” This continued to the day of his final marathon.
In the two months before this last race, the runner had not trained. He was sluggish getting out of bed that morning. He was up to late the night before and his diet had not been healthy. All those weeks, his partner had said, “You must prepare. You need to run. If you don’t train, you won’t win.” Still, the runner showed up at the start line that day. He started strong, and arrogantly, he said to himself, “I’m too good not to win. Why did I train all these years? I haven’t trained in two months and look where I am.”
Then, before he knew it, he slowed down. He was passed by runners he used to leave behind within the first two miles. After six miles, he was stopping and gasping for breath, holding his weak side. He chugged the water given him by race volunteers. At the ninth mile, he was walking, stumbling, falling, on the concrete and unable to pull himself up. He turned over on his back, looking at the sky, with the warning from his partner ringing in his mind’s ear, “If you don’t train, you won’t win.”
Aren’t we all this marathon runner? We are all in a race and some prepare it like a sprint, others prepare like it’s a morning walk, and still others, don’t prepare at all. Even Christians, at times, don’t prepare for this race.
Therefore let anyone who thinks he stands take heed lest he fall.
As I have grown in my walk with the Lord, one thing has seemed to have grown: my sin. Doesn’t that sound odd? Alarming, most definitely, but as I’ve thought about it more, it’s clear that what is really true is that I am more sensitive to sin. I notice sin that I didn’t notice before. I don’t sin more; I just see more of my sin. As Christians grow in sanctification, that should be the case, and I pray it is with me. I see areas of my life now that I am utterly disgusted with. I can’t help but imagine what God thinks when he sees those areas of my life.
In 1 Corinthians 10, Paul writes to the people of Corinth, warning them against idolatry. For the runner in our story, his idol was winning and more centrally, pride. He did not think he needed training in order to win-in order to endure the race. Paul warns against idols of sex, doubt, and complaining in the passage. Countless other times in Scripture, Paul talks about stealing, drunkenness, laziness, greed, and anger, among others. But, as Paul warns, it is not about the action committed-for that is simply the culmination of a crooked heart’s intent. Paul gives his point in verse 12 when he says, “Therefore let anyone who thinks he stands take heed lest he fall.”
The point of this passage is not the sin committed; rather, it’s the pride of our own piety and holiness that can cause us to be desensitized to sin. Instead of killing it in its tracks, we become spiritually lethargic and fat. Instead of stopping at sin’s conception, we don’t sense sin coming and we let it come through the door and make a home in our lives. To counter that, Paul says, “You think you are doing well in your walk? You think you are standing firm? You think you’ve got that sin killed? Take great heed, my friend. Pay attention to your crookedness! Otherwise, you will most definitely fall.”
How often do we do that in our lives? Once we think we have a sin under control, it sneaks up on us. Our pride thinks we have it beaten down and we say, “I don’t need to train today. I’m good, Lord, but thanks anyway.” The next moment, we are six-feet under our gross sin. From this, what do we see as the foundation of our sin? It is our senseless pride and nothing else.
In Romans 11:20b, Paul says something very similar. “Do not become proud, but stand in awe.” Stand in awe of God’s ability to let you fall, flat on your face in sin, tearing down your pride and breaking you to be contrite and humbled before him. Stand in awe of God’s power, mercy, love, grace, forgiveness, and justice. He is able to save you from temptation, as Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 10:13, “No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man. God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation he will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it.”
God will provide the way out, if we seek him, if we take heed, if we stand in awe of him.
Today, I was meditating on this verse, “Let anyone who thinks he stands take heed lest he fall.” God led me to this verse today, because I am so often that marathon runner. I am the one who trains hard, does well for a while, and then slacks off because it’s too hard, or I don’t think I need the help, or I feel I’m above the point of committing a particular sin. If I am really in a marathon race in life, then I must prepare like it. We see another warning in 2 Peter 3:17. “Take care that you are not carried away with the error of lawless people and lose your own stability.” Again, in Hebrews 3:12-13, “Take care, brothers, lest there be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart, leading you to fall away from the living God. But exhort one another every day as long as it is called ‘today,’ that none of you be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin.” Sin can be deceiving. We need to fight against its deception and its power to derail our stability.
The warnings in Scripture are clear. In all this, however, we see God’s great love for us. C. S. Lewis said, “Love is something more splendid and stern than mere kindness.” God gives us warnings because he loves us. His love is stern, “Take heed lest you fall”; yet it is splendid, “No temptation will overtake you that is not common to others.” God is not a lovey-dovey sky fairy. He is a King with great tender-fierceness. He requires more than we can give, yet gives extensive grace and mercy to those who repent. God is a loving Father who cradles his children close, hugs and kisses them, but gives them warnings against sin. “Don’t go there,” he says. “In fact, don’t even think that you are immune. No one is immune.” God does not tolerate sin and neither should we.
In my battle against sin-pride, lust, greed, jealously, anger-I am beginning to understand that I am not immune either. I am starting to realize that God does not expect perfection, for he knows what we are made of, but God wants us to take heed. God wants us to “by the Spirit, put to death the deeds of the body” (Rom. 8:13). With the power of the Holy Spirit, God wants us to battle our sin and kill it. We cannot do that if we think we are above it. “I’ve beaten this sin” should never be our attitude. It should be: “By God’s grace and mercy, I trust him to kill this sin today or ten years from now.”
May we take heed in our battle against sin, lest we allow our pride to sink in and make us rot in sinfulness. May we trust God for a way out when we are tempted. May we stand in awe of God’s heavy hand when we don’t pay attention to our pride. And may we glory in his forgiveness when we do fall down, for we have a Savior who is there to pick us up and love us back to his abundant ways.
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~To Him That is able to keep you from falling and to present you before His glorious presence without fault and with great joy...to the only God our Savior be glory, majesty, power and authority, through Jesus Christ our Lord, before all ages, now and forevermore! Amen.~ Jude 24
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