Bug Patrol

At camp, a friend and I searched for unwelcome bugs in the tent with a flashlight. How can we search for and get rid of the spiritual bugs in our lives?

In 2008 I attended Camp Heritage. It was a great week of fun, challenging activities, spending time with my fellow campers and learning about God’s way of life.  

One night my tent partner decided to have what he called “bug patrol.” He would turn on his flashlight and wave it around the tent, looking for any bugs that might have crawled in.

When you live in a tent for a week, bugs are a major concern. But worrying about bugs in a tent isn’t as important as worrying about spiritual “bugs”!

Sin is like a bug that creeps into our lives. And looking for bugs in a tent can teach us about looking for sin in our lives!

The bugs of sin

Bugs crawl into a tent even though they are unwelcome. In order to get rid of them, you have to know what a bug looks like. The Bible helps us know what sin looks like: breaking God’s law (1 John 3:4).

So how can we tell what sin is? Paul asked the brethren in the church in Rome: “Is the law sin?” He then answered his own question, “Certainly not! On the contrary, I would not have known sin except through the law. For I would not have known covetousness unless the law had said, ‘You shall not covet’” (Romans 7:7).

If it wasn’t for the law of God we wouldn’t know what sin is. We would think that coveting, as Paul mentioned, is okay because we wouldn’t have the law telling us that it is not okay.

So all “bugs” that are the opposite of God’s law must be squashed!

The tent of our body

Now that we know what sin is, let’s compare the tent to our physical bodies. Our bodies are supposed to be “members of Christ” (1 Corinthians 6:15). This means that we are connected to Christ and that we should try to live the way He lived when He was on earth.

Since our bodies are members of Christ, we should take special care of them. This means we must fight sin. Christ is perfect; He lived and died without sinning. As members of His Body, we should try to do the same. Paul told the church in Rome, “Do not present your members as instruments of unrighteousness to sin, but present yourselves to God as being alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God” (Romans 6:13).

The flashlight of God

Now we come to the flashlight, which symbolizes God’s Word. My friend used the flashlight to locate the bugs that had managed to crawl into the tent. What do we use to locate the sin we find in our lives?

As previously stated, sin is defined as breaking God’s law. We are to compare our lives with what is written in God’s Word. Jesus said to His Father, “Sanctify them by Your truth. Your word is truth” (John 17:17).

There is also another definition for the Word in the Bible. John stated in the beginning of his gospel, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God” (John 1:1). He later stated, “And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth” (John 1:14).

Jesus is the Word, and the Word is truth. This makes Jesus the truth. We are to examine ourselves by using God’s Word—especially the example of Jesus Christ!

King David asked God to “search me, O God, and know my heart; try me, and know my anxieties; and see if there is any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting” (Psalm 139:23-24). We should ask God to do the same with us.

Searching for sin

Sin surrounds us everywhere in this world, and we need to learn how to recognize sin in all its forms. To do this, we need to ask God for help and study the Word that He has given us.

Using these tools, we will be able to go on the ultimate bug patrol.

To learn more about identifying sin, read this blog by the author’s brother: “The Sin Behind the Sin.”

Andrew Travers is a senior at the Vinton County High School and attends the Athens, Ohio, congregation.