I went fishing yesterday in the South Fork of the Potomac River, way out in West Virginia. It’s more of a creek there, but teeming with trout, bass, and other fish. As I waited for unsuspecting fish to bite into my worm, I contemplated some of the valuable lessons I could learn from a fish:

1. The bait hides the hook. A wiggling worm looks tasty to a fish because it can’t see the hook. But one bite and the hook will pierce the fish, trapping it, and pull it to its death. Sin is kind of like that. Looks tasty on the outside, but death awaits with concealed malice. Sin always appears appealing, always disappoints, and often kills.
2. A hooked fish is caught. Once the hook is set, the fish is doomed. He may fight or run, but a patient angler will let him wear himself out and reel him in. Sin is like that, too. It has a way of ensnaring its victims, slowly pulling them towards a painful demise.
3. Getting off the hook can be painful. We didn’t plan to eat this fish, we were released them after we caught them. That sounds easier than it sometimes is. These were hungry fish (especially the bass), and they would take a big bite, lodging the barbed hook deep in the jaw. Sometimes we needed pliers to free them. I felt bad for some of these fish as I watched them swim away, dazed and confused. As Christians, the power of sin has been broken, and we are no longer enslaved to it. But the presence of sin remains, and getting free from the powerful grasp of sin can be difficult, sometimes painful. Sometimes sin plants hooks in our flesh that are difficult to remove. But it’s worth it…
4. It’s better to swim than to suffocate. As soon as a hooked fish is yanked from the water, he begins to suffocate. Since he gets his oxygen from the water rather than the air, he immediately begins to writhe, gills gasping for breath. How different these fish look when in the water, effortlessly gliding through the current, joyfully living in the natural habitat God made for them. We were made to serve God, not sin. To bite the bait of sin is to start to suffocate spiritually. It is to abandon the life-giving, oxygen-rich stream of serving God for the suffocating atmosphere of false pleasure. Sin just isn’t worth it.

Let no one say when he is tempted, “I am being tempted by God,” for God cannot be tempted with evil, and he himself tempts no one. But each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire. (James 1:13-14)

I came that they may have life and have it abundantly. (John 10:10b)

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