In Step with the Spirit, Out of Step with the Internet

 By Daniel Darling - Posted at One Little Word:

There is more than one way to sin online, but with Christ, there is power

This Sunday at church the pastor preached a sermon on Galatians 5:16-26. If you grew up in church, you know this passage well. I can probably quote most of it from memory. The pastor preached a really good message about the freedom and power of living in step with the Spirit. He spoke about engaging in the spiritual disciplines and thus cultivating a desire for what is true, good, and beautiful versus what is ugly, destructive, and enslaving.

It’s a battle to wake up every day and step into the power of the spirit. I know, as a pilgrim in the journey of the Christian life for over four decades now. The temptations don’t go away, the longer you are a Christian, but you can find some measure of victory and progress against the flesh, as good habits build. Still, we can resonate with Paul who, in the middle of his journey, still looked within and said, “What a wretched man that I am (Romans 7:24-25).”

What struck me this Sunday with this familiar passage was just how much the sins of the flesh mapped onto the digital age. People were sinning before the Internet, but certain behaviors are made easier, and certain temptations more acute, because of the way the World Wide Web shapes our minds and souls.

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