Drs. Cloud & Townsend: Sin Is More Than External Deeds

     The above examples bring us to another point about sin.  Sin is not just something we do; it is not just behavior.  It emcompasses the roots of behavior as well.  Too often we think of sin only in external terms, not internal.  Jesus warned, "Now then, you Pharisees clean the outside of the cup and dish, but inside you are full of greed and wickedness. You foolish people! Did not the one who made the outside make the inside also?"  (Luke 11:39-40)
     The two examples above -- the man hurt by his wife and my hypothetical example of someone hurt by a parent -- show the importance of dealing with internal motivations.  Unresloved anger and hurt can turn into bitterness and lust.  Hatred for authority has probably ruined more careers than lack of training.  And many other monsters lurk in the shadow of the human breast.  Consider this: (read Mark 7:20-23)
     Many illnesses, failures, addictions, relationship difficulties, and destructive behaviours originate in these motivators.  As Jesus said, the fruit comes from the tree (Matt. 12:33-35).  To look inside and resolve these issues is the key to having the outside be good.  If we are full of "crummy stuff," then we will exhibit crummy behavior, the same holds for good stuff.
     The truth is, though, that all of us have crummy stuff within us. It is part of the fallen nature, the "sickness" of sin, as Jesus put it (Mark 2:17).  If we are ever going to get well, we have to have the safety to look inside, confess it, grieve it, repent of it, and "put off [our] old self, which is being corupted by its deceitful desires; to be made new in the attitude of [our] minds; and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousnes and holiness" (Eph. 4:22-24).  We have to be made new from the inside out, and that begins with facing how ugly things are inside.
     We all need a place where we can say, "You won't believe how sick I am!  Let me tell you about this thought I had today."  We need to make this kind of confession normal.  Then we can begin to clean up our insides. [ HOW PEOPLE GROW,  by Drs. Henry Cloud and John Townsend, Chapter 8: Pulling The Weeds, pgs.306-307]