My dog is an idiot.
He whines for me to give him food but then doesn’t eat it. When I let him inside he immediately barks to go back outside. He moves to the other side of the couch but can’t figure out why I stopped petting him. Trash trucks are his mortal enemy, he’s terrified of his water bowl, and he believes that a balanced diet contains a daily serving of dog poop.
Man I’m glad I’m not that dumb, right?
In a passage regarding the ungodly, Jude 1:10-11 says,
“But these people scoff at things they do not understand. Like unthinking animals, they do whatever their instincts tell them, and so they bring about their own destruction. What sorrow awaits them! For they follow in the footsteps of Cain, who killed his brother. Like Balaam, they deceive people for money. And like Korah, they perish in their rebellion.”
Jude 1:10-11
Just in case you need some refreshing on your Old Testament stories (I certainly did), Cain killed his brother out of jealousy, Balaam’s greed for money caused him to doubt God’s prophecy, and Korah’s pride caused him to rebel against Moses. To sum it up, the moral of the story is that acting on your instincts leads to sin.
Our instincts lead us to fight when we’re angry, to prioritize earthly treasure, and to let our pride get the best of us. When we’re acting on our instincts, the bible says we’re literally acting the same way my dumb dog acts. I don’t know about you but that certainly brings my ego down a peg.
While humans and animals share similar instincts, there is a vast difference in our calling. Animals aren’t called by God to do…well…anything. However, we are called to be followers of Christ. This means we’re called to not let our instincts control us. We are called to obey God and to live a Spirit-filled life. Even though He gives us the Spirit to aid us in this task, there is still one problem:
Instincts are easy. Obedience is hard.
My challenge to you this week is to pray that God would give you the strength and the courage to obey him and do the things that are hard. Pray that you would not give in to your sinful nature, but strive to do God’s will. Think about the phrase “What sorrow awaits them!” from the Jude passage above. Let that be your motivation to not fall into the intelligence category of a butt-licking canine.