Don’t Stock the Pantry with Temptation

Imagine deciding to eat healthy. When you go to the grocery store, you stay in the outside aisles, buying lots of fruit, fresh produce, and meat. It fits with your goal of taking care of your body. You are not a fanatic about it, but you want to be faithful and do a good job of maintaining your health.

But then you stop in the chip aisle. There are a few kinds of chips you really enjoy, and they’re on sale, so you grab them and throw them into the shopping cart. You figure, “I’m not going to eat them. I’m just putting them away in the closet.”

You take them home with the best intentions. You resolve not to touch them. But you know that if you buy food you like and take it home, you will eventually eat it. You will have made provision for unhealthy habits that you are trying to cut out of your life, and it will cause you to fail.

Eating chips is fine, of course, as an occasional treat. But you cannot pretend that you are not going to eat chips if you decide to buy them and stock them in your cupboard.

The same applies to sin.

In Romans 13:14, Paul gives us a two-part strategy for fighting sin. “But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to gratify its desires.”

First, put on the Lord Jesus Christ. This means living in light of our union with him. It means understanding who are in Jesus and living in light of that reality. Just as you put on clothes, put on Jesus every day and act like the person you are in him.

But the second part of the strategy is just as important: “Make no provision for the flesh, to gratify its desires.”

This means refusing to plan, arrange, or create opportunities for sinful impulses to grow. It is not only about the choices we make in the moment of sin. It is also about dealing with the conditions that feed our destructive desires.

In other words, Paul is saying, do not just fight sin in the moment. Step back a little and refuse to set up the circumstances that would make sin possible.

The battle against sin does not only happen in the moment. It also happens when we avoid situations, circumstances, and opportunities that might lead us into sin.

We are used to preparing for almost everything. We prepare our clothes, our food, our vacations, and more. Paul is saying that whatever you do, do not prepare to sin. Instead, actively take steps to cut temptation out of your life. Deliberately arrange your life so that sinful desires are harder to satisfy. Avoid certain environments. Put a filter on your phone. Cancel that streaming service. Throw away those books. Cut out influences that tempt you toward sin.

Even if you are okay most of the time in these circumstances, if they leave you vulnerable some of the time, they are simply not worth it.

The battle against sin is not only fought at the moment of temptation. It is also fought at the moment of preparation. Just as you would not claim to eat healthily while stocking your pantry with chips, do not claim to be fighting sin while filling your life with opportunities to be tempted.

Make no provision. Deal with sin and with the possibility of sin before you are even tempted to sin. It is not the only strategy for fighting sin, but it is an important one that we cannot afford to ignore.