The trigger and the cause

Where does sin come from? Imagine I asked you, ‘Why did you get so violently angry in traffic during your commute this morning?’ What would you say? Perhaps, ‘Because that guy cut me off in traffic.’ Or perhaps, ‘Because traffic was so bad and I was going to be late for work.’ Or perhaps, ‘Because my wife got me upset as I was leaving the house.’

To which I would say: go deeper. Look deeper than the things that triggered your anger. Those are just triggers. They’re not causes. The proof of this is that bad traffic doesn’t cause everyone to explode in violent anger. In her book If, Amy Carmichael says: ‘For a cup brimful of sweet water cannot spill even one drop of bitter water, however suddenly jolted.’ Tim Chester is right when he says that, ‘Our struggles and temptations often trigger sin, but they never cause it.’

Jesus tells us in Mark 7.20-23 that our sin comes our hearts – the core of who we are. Bad fruit comes from a bad tree (Luke 43-45). You won’t gain victory over a sin like violent anger if, when you seek to understand it, you stay at the surface level of triggers like bad traffic and bad drivers. You must dig down into your heart and understand the deep causes of your sin. Perhaps your anger is coming from a lack of trust in God’s provision for you, or from a dissatisfaction with your life, or from an overly-strong need to please your boss and perform at work. That is the level at which we must work, and that is the level at which we must apply the gospel. Let’s not confuse a trigger for a cause.

Posted by Stephen Witmer on May 11, 10:01 AM