When someone becomes a Christian, there is a newness to the whole thing.  There is an energy, a desire to learn more and a desire to grow closer to God.  One thing that we sometimes learn, depending on your background before you became a Christian, is that we really need to make some changes in our lives.  As we grow older, in our faith, we can become comfortable.  And although that sense of comfort is a good thing, it can become dangerous.  How so?

As “mature” Christians, it can become easy to start thinking we have it all figured out.  No, we would never be so bold as to say we know it all, but we can become over-confident, thinking that we know “all the important stuff” and that we are doing everything correctly.  Not that we are sinless, but our acknowledged sin is more theoretical that specific.  We admit that we do stumble(i.e. sin) from time to time, but we have sin under control in our lives and we are living a godly life.  And this should be our goal, but it is a goal that we can mor easily ease into than actually work into.  By this, I mean that we are not carefully examining ourselves and making a reasoned determination that we ARE doing well.  Instead, we just assume that we are doing well because we have been doing this for so long, however long that might be in our own minds.  It could be one year; it could be twenty years.

The concept of being “nose-blind” to smells in our homes, especially in dirty laundry, is an idea that garnered a more widespread prevalence in the past several years.  But the basic concept is that you become so used to something that you no longer notice it.  Others can notice it easily, but you do not notice it.

Unfortunately, this can happen with more mature Christians.  We think we have everything under control, yet there is some sin or sins in our lives, and we are so used to it being there that we no longer notice it.  We are so comfortable in our faith and our perceived salvation that we completely fail to notice the sin that is right under our own nose.  By the way, we should actually be comfortable in our faith and our salvation, but that should not come from our own self-assurance, but rather it should come from our faith in God.  We trust His promises of forgiveness and salvation.

Of course, other Christians can spot it a mile away, but we don’t allow that to come out when we are around other Christinas who would notice.  We are not intentionally, thoughtfully hiding it, but rather we have been hiding it from others for so long that the hiding has become almost like a reflex or an involuntary response.

In Eph. 4:17-19, Paul warns the church in Ephesus that they should not be living like the Gentiles(he is using Gentiles to refer to people who are not living godly lives).  He goes further to state that these people are separated from God because of ignorance, which is caused by the hardening of their hearts.   Paul goes further to state that this hardness of heart results in a loss of sensitivity.  They are no longer sensitive; they no longer realize that what they are doing is sin.  And this can lead to separation from God.  Paul is stating a more extreme example, but the same thing would be true on a lesser basis.  We might not be completely overcome with all kinds of sin, but instead we are comfortable living in “just a little sin.”  It is so little that we don’t notice it, and that is all it takes to separate us from God.  Don’t let this happen to you.  Don’t let this happen to your brothers and sisters.  Let’s be vigilant for ourselves, but let’s also be vigilant for those we love.