Choosing Sin To Ply

How can the unsaved be deaf to the voice,
That calls them to sin from behind a screen,
The author of evil, by his own choice,
Satan of a thousand faces, all unseen?
More puzzling is why the saved also trails
The spoor* that entices to halls of vice,
Knowing full well the Anointed's travails,
His blood freely spilled as redemption's price!
Ha! You sinning goats, pretend no surprise,
When His rod drives you from among the sheep!
Your mother warned you about Satan's tries,
And your conscience stung hard before its sleep!
Look not on your Judge with reproaching eye;
You know full well you freely chose sin to ply!

*spoor = scent

In Matthew 25:32 Jesus tells the apostles about the end of time when every person will stand resurrected before Him to be judged. He will separate them like a shepherd divides his sheep from the goats. Those who are in the "sheep" will receive eternal life in heaven; the "goats" will be condemned to life in hell.

The poem above speaks of how our mothers warned us of the temptations of doing evil things in life and not to do them. Also, each of us had an inborn conscience, that would advise us inwardly when a proposed activity was not the right thing to do. This conscience was strong and forceful in the start of life, but if we neglected its advice by continual rebuff, it faded away.

Those of us who became active Christians have the Holy Spirit (God) within our beings, and He replaced the conscience, advising us to conform to the teachings of Jesus as we learned of them attending church and reading the Bible. We know that when we disobey a commandment in the Bible, we have committed sin; we know that He expects us to grieve over our lapse, ask God for forgiveness, and use our strongest will power not to commit the same sin again. Unfortunately, all of us do sin, and far too many become inured by repeating those sins over and over, never repenting nor exerting much effort to abandon the sins forever. This behavior puts our expected salvation into question; in these cases, we may be like "goats" who are surprised to be in the condemned group and reproach God, knowing it was our own choices (but not acknowledging) that condemned us. (Read Matthew 25:31-46)