We might give several reasons for fighting sin. These reasons are good, but until recently I had not considered the best reason to fight sin. Here are the good but not quite complete reasons to fight sin:

• Sin keeps us from living the way we were created to live. To experience the best kind of life we must live the way the Creator intended.
• Sin is displeasing to God. If we want to please God we must avoid sin.
• Sin distracts us from accomplishing God’s will. If our minds are following sin, we will not be following God.
• Sin disrupts human relationships as it keeps us from seeing and loving one another as we ought.

Again, those are all good reasons. But here is what I am now thinking is the best reason to fight sin:

• When we sin we treat something as greater than God himself. We are distracted from delighting in God and instead delight in our sinful actions. The delight may not be obvious – who would consider it delightful to go off in a murderous rage? But nonetheless even then we desire our rage more than we desire God. When we sin we have that sin and not God as the center of our being. We fight sin so that we can keep our eyes fixed on Christ and our delight fully on him.