Have you ever stolen anything? If so, it was probably for a reason. A beggar steals food because he is hungry. A child steals candy because he wants to put that chocolate in his mouth. An addict steals anything of value to fund his habits. Others steal out of jealousy and a desire to have what others have.
In his classic autobiography titled Confessions, Saint Augustine of Hippo recounted the time he stole some pears from another man’s tree. He was only sixteen years old, and many might dismiss his actions as a harmless teenage prank, but for Augustine, his theft revealed a deeper heart issue. Listen to how he would later describe this pivotal event in his life: “We carried off a huge load of pears, and after barely tasting some, fed the rest to hogs. We had no intention of eating the pears, but to simply steal them. This act pleased us because it was forbidden…I had no desire to enjoy what I had stolen, but to enjoy the theft and the sin itself.”
Far from sweeping this petty crime under the rug, Augustine lamented, “Behold with what companions I walked the streets of Babylon!...I loved my own undoing…I had become to myself a wasteland.”
Typically people steal to feed themselves or a habit. Augustine’s thievery accomplished no moral purpose. This was not a situational ethics case of arguing that the ends justified the means (Better to steal than starve to death). For Augustine, the act of stealing pears was symptomatic of a larger problem—that his heart was totally depraved and far from God. It mattered not whether he stole pears or pearls; the dollar amount was of no concern to God.
His brutal honesty in assessing his fallen condition is what ultimately led to his salvation. As long as we insist that our sin is no big deal and try to downplay its seriousness (Relax, it’s just a few pears!), we will never come face to face with our own separation from a holy God and need of a Savior. Many who live in sin choose to view God as an officer of the law, someone who just waits for us to mess up so He can make the big bust. Augustine viewed God differently. He wrote of his Lord, “…as I recall in the bitterness of self-examination my wicked ways, that you may grow ever sweeter to me, You who are sweetness without deception! You are sweetness, happy and assured! You gathered me up out of those fragments in which I was torn to pieces while I turned away from you…”
The Bible is clear that “all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God (Romans 3:23),” and that “the wages of sin is death (Romans 6:23).” We will not make it to heaven by sinning less than other people, by sinning for noble causes, or by sinning in only minor infractions. It all comes down to your heart. The natural person—the one who has not yet been saved by grace—sins for sin’s sake. Sin is what sinners do. Is your heart a wasteland, or have you been saved?
