Just because you can

Here God condemns people for their blatant sins. Sometimes people sin, but it’s a thing of the moment. Perhaps, for example, we get angry with someone, and we react in a wrong way.

But here, people actually were planning out their sins. And basically they carried out their plans, sinful though they were, simply because they could.

God says of them in verse 1,

Woe to those who plan iniquity, to those who plot evil on their beds! At morning’s light they carry it out because it is in their power to do it. (Micah 2:1)

But God tells them in no uncertain terms that they will not get away with it. In verse 3, he says,

I am planning disaster against this people from which you cannot save yourselves. You will no longer walk proudly, for it will be a time of calamity. (Micah 2:3)

How often do we sin just because we can? We have the opportunity to sin, no one can stop us, no one will know, and so we sin.

Pornography, for example, used to be much more difficult for people to get away with, because you had to go to a store to get it. Somebody would definitely see you and know what you were doing.

Now the internet makes it easy to access without anyone knowing. And so many Christian men fall in this area as a result.

Or people cheat on their marriage partner because the opportunity presents itself and they feel no one will ever find out.

But God knows. Our sin will eventually come to light, if not in this world, then in the next, and there will be judgment.

So let us not embrace the opportunities we have to sin, but let us flee them. Just because it’s in our power to sin, doesn’t mean we should.

As Paul said,

Do not offer the parts of your body to sin as instruments of wickedness, but rather offer yourselves to God, as those who have been brought from death to life; and offer the parts of your body to him as instruments of righteousness.

For sin shall not be your master, because you are not under law, but under grace. (Romans 6:13–14)