Important Lessons for a Very Peculiar ChurchSýnishorn

Whenever we feel invincible, we are ripe for disaster

Therefore let anyone who thinks that he stands take heed lest he fall.

When the Titanic set sail on its first voyage in 1912, the ship’s builders and officers believed that the Titanic was unsinkable. They believed their great ocean liner was invincible. In fact, the captain arrogantly remarked, “Even God himself couldn’t sink her.”

Whenever we feel invincible, we are ripe for disaster. This principle is also true of our spiritual lives. Whenever we feel invincible, we are ripe for disaster.

1 Corinthians 10:12 warns us against this feeling of being invincible. If, deep down, you feel immune to sexual sin, divorce, alcoholism, or any other sin: watch out. You are vulnerable to a fall. If we subconsciously think to ourselves, or worse, say to someone, “I could never fall into that sin,” look out. “Therefore let anyone who thinks he stands take heed lest he fall.”

This attitude of invincibility reflects spiritual pride, along with condescension and a lack of compassion towards those who have fallen. This attitude reflects a dangerous lack of dependence on and desperation for God. It reflects a superficial underestimation of the power of sin, the power of the flesh, and the power of demonic deception.

This is not to say that we will sin or that we have to sin. Of course not. But it is to say that we could sin and that we must be vigilant, for we are most vulnerable whenever we think we are invincible.

“Therefore let anyone who thinks that he stands take heed lest he fall.”