Sin and Coffee

When sin stops hurting, the soul starts dying...

First let me say that this article isn’t an attack on coffee. Coffee is a beloved daily ritual for many, but it does offer a powerful analogy for how sin can subtly escalate in our lives.

For some of us, it starts with a cup here and there as a child (sometimes heavily sweetened). Then we get our first job, and we start to understand why our parents drink coffee. It begins with a cup in the morning. Then, maybe after having a child, you realize one cup isn’t enough and you have two a day. Then three. Then suddenly you’re drinking coffee all day every day.

Here’s the thing. Coffee, in moderation, is not a bad thing. Coffee is not evil. Sin, however? When we look at the way in which our bodies become tolerant to coffee, we can see a pattern that relates to sin.

Sin can seem innocent enough at first. “It was just a white lie. I didn’t want to cause conflict.” Eventually, it turns into a hardened heart. Sin and addiction can help to illustrate the same law of escalation. Tolerance, dependence, and destruction. Addiction kills the body. Sin kills the soul.

The Progression of Bondage

It’s a slow progression. No one wakes up one morning suddenly addicted to caffeine (or any other substance) or to sin. It happens sip by sip, choice by choice. The occasional cup becomes a ritual performed multiple times a day. The repeated sin results in conviction fading for convenience.

Caffeine works by blocking adenosine (the chemical that tells your brain it’s tired). Over time, the body starts to fight back and begins to build more receptors. When that happens, the same amount of caffeine no longer works to stimulate. You drink more just to feel “normal.” That is called tolerance and it happens with every addictive drug. The body adjusts to the poison. Not because it’s healing, but because it’s trying to survive.

Sin works much in the same way. At first, the heart feels that sting of guilt. The Spirit whispers and you know what you are doing is wrong. The more that sin is justified, however, the quieter the Spirit’s voice becomes. You tell yourself it’s fine. It’s not a big deal. Before you realize it? The thing you used to repent for becomes the thing you defend.

Tolerance feels like freedom, but it isn’t. In the case of sin, it’s just the soul becoming used to the darkness.

It’s not uncommon to build tolerance. Not to chemicals, but to compromise. Maybe the lie that used to keep us up at night doesn’t bother us anymore. Maybe the thing we once called sin, we now call “just being human.” That’s how it happens. Slowly, quietly, until the soul stops flinching at what used to make it weep.

The Deception of Dependence

Tolerance is often mistaken for strength. The one who can handle more believes they’re in control. The truth, however, is that tolerance doesn’t make you stronger. It just means your system has learned to survive a higher dose of poison. What once would have rattled your body starts to become routine.

This is exactly what tolerance to addictive substances does. It makes poison feel like peace. Sin works the same way. The lie that once broke your heart now slides off your tongue. The compromise that once burned in your conscience barely flickers anymore. You have adapted to the toxin of sin. You call it maturity, balance, or perspective. What it really is, though? Numbness. The soul builds tolerance to conviction until what once felt deadly now feels normal.

And this is the deception of dependence. You think you have mastered something because it no longer hurts. The reality is that what you are experiencing is a slow spiritual death.

In Romans 6:16 we are warned, “You are slaves to the one you obey.” Each repeated indulgence tightens the chain and if the pattern isn’t broken, what began as pleasure ends in death.

The Illusion of Freedom

Dependence gives the illusion of freedom and sin works the same way. When conviction dulls and the heart grows numb, people start to mistake their lack of guilt for peace. They say, “I’ve made peace with who I am,” when what they’ve really made is a truce with death. The silence of conviction isn’t the voice of freedom. It is the sound of the Spirit being grieved.

While tolerance may give the illusion of strength, that illusion will collapse. You may hold up under sin for a while, but it only lasts until you can’t. You’re fine, until you aren’t. The soul shatters and the same thing that brought you comfort or convenience becomes the very thing that ruins you.

But exhort one another daily, while it is called To day; lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin. (Hebrews 3:13)

We Will All Sin

I get told that, because I address things like sin, I am being judgmental. I am told that no one is perfect. I couldn’t agree more that no one is perfect. I look in the mirror every day. Isn’t that the point though? If it were easy for us to live our lives without a sin ever occurring, our Lord’s sacrifice wouldn’t mean what it does. There is a difference, however, between stumbling in sin and living in it. If you can sin with zero conviction and see no need for repentance? That is a hardened heart. If you can excuse those who do this? I, personally, do not see that as love. Love is truth. Love is saving souls from lies that will damn them. We will all stumble. The danger is in excusing persistent sin instead of seeking true repentance.

Our Freedom Was Paid For

God doesn’t want us to manage sin. Jesus paid the price so we could be free of it. Rebellion doesn’t come in healthy doses and the only way to treat the poison of sin is through surrender to Christ.

Repentance is a detox for the soul. Some people think it’s just saying “sorry” and then looking to Jesus as if He is some kind of etch-a-sketch. Shake it a little and everything is erased. That is not repentance. That is apology (and sometimes we become so hardened not even our apologies are sincere). With repentance comes a turning away from sin. A breaking and a coming alive in Him.

Unlike physical addictions, we can’t just create a taper schedule for sin. It has to be crucified. Then, through His grace, what sin once tried to kill begins to be resurrected.

Every single one of us has built a tolerance to something that God never meant us to consume. Violence. Lies. Hatred. Whatever it may be, it does prevent us from truly living the way He intended us to. Fortunately, the very same God who formed your heart can make it new again. It takes surrender, and letting go of tolerance of and excuses for our own sin.

“If the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.” (John 8:36)

“Moreover the law entered, that the offence might abound. But where sin abounded, grace did much more abound” (Romans 5:20)

If you feel trapped in sin or stuck in its cycle? Know that God’s grace is greater than any sin and He offers the freedom you are seeking. If anything in this article reached you? Your heart can’t be that hard, no matter what you face, and repentance is just one step away.

Grace doesn’t just forgive what you’ve done. It wakes what died of inside you and brings it back to life again. Jesus is just waiting for you to claim the freedom that is already yours in Him.