THAT POISONOUS SIN WEED

By A.W. Tozer

Sin is a poisonous weed that throws the whole nature out of order. The inner life disintegrates; the flesh lusts after forbidden pleasures; the moral judgment is distorted so that often good appears evil and evil good; time is chosen over eternity, earth over heaven and death over life.

This in large measure accounts for the vivid and colorful language employed by the prophets and apostles to describe the effects of sin. "The whole head is sick, and the whole heart faint. From the sole of the foot even unto the head there is no soundness in it; but wounds, and bruises, and putrifying sores" (Isaiah 1:5–6, KJV). This is a sample from Isaiah. A dozen pages of quotations equally as strong could be taken from the other prophets and psalmists.

The New Testament is generally thought to be milder than the Old, but we have only to read Christ's indictment of the Pharisees to discover how wrong such a notion is. Peter, John and Jude dip their pens in liquid fire to do justice to the blazing wrath of God against sin, while Paul traces the serpentine path of sin through the human system and proves how confused and morally self-contradictory the heart is that has not been separated from its iniquity.