Thought of the Day 01.28.09

In the epic poem he is named for, Odysseus tries to navigate his ship carefully between two great dangers. Scylla is a multi-headed monster which will destroy his ship and kill his men. And Charybdis sucks in so much water that she creates a whirlpool inhales her prey. And so it is with the Christian life.

The threat from the Scylla of unholy living is ominous and mostly obvious. Our error is thinking we are strong enough to resist or that we’re not in danger because we aren’t as sinful as other people.

But the unseen threat from the Charybdis of legalism is no less real. Our efforts to avoid sin can easily suck us into trying to succeed by following a set of rules, especially Biblical ones. Here, again, our mistake is thinking that legalism is only a danger to other people.

All human captains will steer into one or the other. Jesus alone steers us safely between them, and living the Gospel means being vigilant to let Him do so.