Therefore, prepare your minds for action, keep sober in spirit, fix your hope completely on the grace to be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ.  As obedient children, do not be conformed to the former lusts which were yours in your ignorance, but like the Holy One who called you, be holy yourselves also in all your behavior; 1 Peter 1:13-15

The success of a fishing lure lies mainly in its ability to attract. The shiny spinners sparkle and move with the current of the water and as a result of the skillful fisherman’s hand. Once attracted the fish moves in for a closer look and ultimately makes the fatal decision to strike at what it believes to be an easy meal.  Too late does the unsuspecting fish feel the bite of the hook and the draw of the line that means the hunter has become the hunted.

My good friend Mike Reese, musician and songwriter as both a solo artist and member of the group Simon Peter, sings a song appropriately titled “Hooks” in which the following lyrics are haunting in their accuracy:

Some people say “It’s all in fun. Don’t get so serious if we get delirious, there’s no harm done.”

It may take years or just a day and what was once a game is now not quite the same.

It is a habit now that you find you can’t live without. And the deceitfulness of sin has got you again.

The chorus drives the point home:

Oh it’s so subtle, has such good looks.

It’s so wrapped up in the things we want,

We can’t see the hooks.

Christians often fall victim to the strategies of the enemy because they don’t see the hooks.  Sin is not something that the believer is to play around with thinking no one is being hurt and no one will ever know anyway. Those justifications are the “shiny spinners” the enemy uses to fish for believers who will take a second lingering look at the bait.

The Apostle Peter reminds us that believers are to prepare our minds to withstand temptations knowing that they will come packaged in ways that will attract our attention.  That is the meaning behind Peter’s admonition and warning that we must not “be conformed to the former lusts which were yours in your ignorance.” The flesh will rear its ugly head and it is no accident that the temptation involves things from our life before Christ.

When the enemy flashes bait before your eyes remember that Christ set you free from every hook the enemy might send your way. Therefore, “be holy yourselves in all your behavior.”  In other words, cut the bait and move on to maturity in Jesus Christ.