“17 These people are springs without water, mists driven by a whirlwind. The gloom of darkness has been reserved for them. 18 For by uttering boastful, empty words, they seduce, with fleshly desires and debauchery, people who have barely escaped from those who live in error. 19 They promise them freedom, but they themselves are slaves of corruption, since people are enslaved to whatever defeats them.

20 For if, having escaped the worlds 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. 21 For it would have been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness than, after knowing it, to turn back from the holy command delivered to them. 22 It has happened to them according to the true proverb: A dog returns to its own vomit, and, a sow, after washing itself, wallows in the mud.”
2 Peter 2:17-22
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Nobody likes having their errors, mistakes and flaws pointed out. When confronted with a sin, wrong attitude or error, we tend to throw up defensive walls, construct arguments to justify our position and we respond in anger to anyone who stands against us. We weave webs of shadow and rationalization around our hearts and minds, webs to keep conviction away and to keep our reasoning in one piece. It is a tenuous place to live, but like Shelob’s lair, we don’t want light infiltrating our ugliness.

Sin is dangerous. It really and truly is. As a minister and Christian for almost 30 years, it is easy to dismiss it and stand pridefully over it assuming I will not be affected. But that is a lie sin tells me. Pride creeps into my heart an tells me that I am not vulnerable, I am not reachable, an that is when I slip in shadow.

We cannot take sin lightly. We cannot pretend that it will not affect us, or that we cannot be swayed. Even that attitude is a dwelling place of sin if we are concentrating on our own strength and not leaning on God or relying on Him. Standing apart from Him, we are open, vulnerable and weak. We are then easily snared by the lies and deceit of the flesh and the world around us. And once in those webs of lies, we are snagged, line by line, in shadow, rationalizations and sin. At first we are disgusted, but we acclimate, we get use to it and we learn to live with sin. Sometimes we tell ourselves, “I was raised this way” as if our parents were flawless in every judgement. Sometimes we say “I’ve always done this, what’s the harm?” But a fish born blind in a cave is not going to understand the benefits of the light and seeing the world around it, both for defense and for feeding. They simply exist in vulnerability.

Peter is trying to warn the church against sin and deception, lies and conniving hearts. The world is really good at telling us we need it, and sin is persuasive, even to the strongest hearts. We cannot afford to rationalize it away or to acclimate to its presence in our lives. Our call to GoLove others should convict us of the need to live a life that pursues righteousness. If we claim Christ, but look like the world, then our witness is no witness at all. It’s not fun to have our sin exposed, but a wound left uncleaned will become infected and begin to rot.