“Quick! Look, there are monkeys on the roof of the next building!” Lynne opened the door to the balcony and walked out to watch as a troop of monkeys ran across the thatched roofs of the resort buildings in Botswana, Africa. “Look, she’s carrying her baby,” Lynne gleefully announced as I considered going for my camera for the photo op.

At the speed they were traveling, I knew it was not going to be a camera-ready moment. One by one they disappeared over the top of the building across from us, until the last one stopped and looked at us. There was something about the look on his face as he started flying through the tree branches until he was about three to four feet from my face. “This guy is coming in!” I shouted just as he leaped from the tree and landed on the balcony, heading for the open sliding door.

What ensued was an “epic battle” between Lynne and this crazy monkey trying to get in the door. Maybe he knew about the fruit basket on the table from a previous incursion. Lynne kept pushing him back with the deck chair as she tried to get in the door. This guy was persistent. In retrospect, it was a hilarious moment that I wish I had caught on video, but at the time Lynne wasn’t laughing.

I grabbed the chair and went into defense mode as Lynne went into the room with me following shortly behind. That guy was ticked! The look on his face was anything but cute! He jumped up to the railing and ricocheted off of it, slamming against the glass door. After several more bounces off the door he finally jumped up in the tree and disappeared over the roofline.

Sin is a lot like that monkey. We don’t see any danger in it. It may appear to be harmless on the surface, maybe even enjoyable, but what it is really doing is trying to get into the door of your spiritual life. Starting with Cain, God has been warning man from the very beginning to resist sin. Cain got ticked when his offering wasn’t regarded by God as was Abel, his brother. He asked Cain: “Why are you angry, and why has your face fallen? If you do well, will you not be accepted? And if you do not do well, sin is crouching at the door. Its desire is contrary to you, but you must rule over it” (Genesis 4:6-7, ESV).

Sin is always waiting at the door, looking for a way in. As Christians, we have been set free from the power sin once had in our lives, but we can become careless about the danger of sin.

German philosopher Georg Hegel famously stated, “The only thing we learn from history is that we learn nothing from history.” Too many Christians have failed to learn from their own history with sin and its consequences. The apostle Paul gave us this warning: “Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, to make you obey its passions. Do not present your members to sin as instruments for unrighteousness but present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life, and your members to God as instruments for righteousness. For sin will have no dominion over you since you are not under law but under grace” (Romans 6:12-14).

When Paul tells us “not to present your members,” he is saying “don’t open the door.” We take God’s grace for granted when we flirt with sin and then get caught up in it.

The testimony of God’s Word is that Jesus died to set us free from sin, and He sent the Holy Spirit to empower us to live free from it. If I love King Jesus, I am not going to flirt with sin. James 1:14-15 states: “But each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire. Then desire when it has conceived gives birth to sin, and sin when it is fully grown brings forth death.”

Just like that cute little monkey, letting sin get too close is going to result in a battle we don’t need. Before opening the door, we look to King Jesus.

“Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God” (Hebrews 12:1-2).

King Jesus “endured the cross” so that sin would not have control over me. Flirting with sin should be off the table. Time to stop monkeying around!

What say ye, Man of Valor?
Semper Fidelis!