Don't Try To Pet It

For if, having escaped the world's impurity through the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they are again entangled in these things and defeated, the last state is worse for them than the first. - 2 Peter 2:20

I was about 12 years old when my mother and I went to visit the folks who had bought our house. My mother told me, as we pulled into their driveway, that the dog on the chain would bite. She went in the house, but I remained outside, with the dog. To me, the dog didn't look like it was the "biting kind" and since I fashioned myself an expert on the subject, I figured I would pet him. He wagged his tail enticingly as I approached, but when I bent down to scratch his head he laid back his ears and started to growl.

As I mentioned above, being an "expert" on dogs I quickly deduced that this was a "bad" response, intelligently turned my back on him (mistake #1), and tried to run away (mistake #2) and yes, I ran the full length of the chain (mistake #3) in the opposite direction! By the time I reached the end, he had reached mine.

Sin is lot like that dog. It looks harmless enough at first, but it will bite you in the end. Of course, for the believer, "sin" is indeed chained, but it is still no less dangerous. Don't try to pet it.

I've seen a look in dogs' eyes, a quickly vanishing look of amazed contempt, and I am convinced that basically dogs think humans are nuts. - John Steinbeck