Numbers 30:13 Every vow, and every binding oath to afflict the soul, her husband may establish it, or her husband may make it void.

While I take great pleasure in Jesus Christ being the bridegroom and rely upon Him and Him alone to deal with my sin based on our relationship, I want to examine the afflicted soul. Psychology has a term for the soul that is not afflicted at all. They are called psychopaths. These are people who are void of all feelings.

There was a television series once that dealt with psychopaths and when asked why this killer felt compelled to kill his answer was, “So I could feel something, anything but this emptiness.” This is the true nature of sin, to feel emotion, to pleasure self. If it feels good do it. Our sin nature causes us to fill our lives with feelings. Even sins expression of love is selfish. It is called Eros in the Greek. It means selfish love, to derive pleasure at the expense of others.

Psychopath is the extreme term followed closely behind by sociopath and narcissist. These three are extreme examples and nearly everyone recognizes these behaviors to be unacceptable. They all have the absence of the afflicted soul. We who have afflicted souls find ourselves in various stages of affliction. Some of us have given way to pleasure have either masked or at least dulled those feelings of affliction.

1 John 2:15-17 Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world. And the world passeth away, and the lust thereof: but he that doeth the will of God abideth for ever.

Here is a secret. The world will abandon you. The world passes away.

Romans 5:12  Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned:

We all share a sin nature. We are born with it. There is absolutely nothing we have done that caused it, and we all suffer because of it. How do I know? The bible tells me so.

Romans 8:20 For the creature was made subject to vanity, not willingly, but by reason of him who hath subjected the same in hope,

God told Adam don’t. If God had not told Adam don’t, sin would not exist. The secret of why God said don’t is revealed in the words of Jesus, if you love me keep my commandments. If there was no command “do not eat” Adam and Eve could have and would have become self-indulgent. They would have done anything and everything without any concern for anyone, even each other.

Love is placing the object of your affections before yourself. Without at least one measure of choice love cannot be expressed. Denial of self-interests are expressions of love. Since we were created to be loved and to love, we needed an example of how to express that love. Don’t eat was the first example.

That explains the why we have a sin nature but what is this sin nature. What does it do to us?

Genesis 3:10 And he said, I heard thy voice in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked; and I hid myself.

Sinning should produce three results. Note here I said should!

Put the fear of God in you.

Feel exposed.

Feel vulnerable.

I said should, but what if I sin and I don’t feel those things?