The Chain Gang isn’t Glamorous
The world tries to make sin a glamorous thing. Many years ago, there was a song about the men working on the chain gain. The lyrics of that song said: “That’s the sound of the men working on the chain gang.” The song sympathizes with their plight talking about how they work so hard and just want to go home to their family. Maybe this is true, but the song doesn’t talk about why they are on the chain gang to begin with. Maybe they took the life of someone else’s family member. Maybe they robbed a small business and destroyed someone’s livelihood. There is a reason the men working on the chain gang are working there, but the song doesn’t mention that. Why? Because there’s nothing attractive about robbery, murder, and its just punishment.
Why sing about those men working on the chain gang then? Such songs create sympathy for those who are being justly punished for the crimes. They also lessen in the public mind the seriousness of the crime that they commit. Years of sympathizing with sin has so cheapened sin that no one thinks anything about it when it is reported. This leads tolittle retribution, and much licentiousness.
Sin is a horribly ugly thing, but Satan wants us to think it’s no big deal. He uses every means available to try to convince us of that. How do we know sin is horrible? Look at the price paid for it—the death of the Son of God. If you don’t think that was horrible, just read about the process of crucifixion sometime.Remember, “In due time, Christ died for the ungodly” (Romans 5:6) Don’t cheapen Christ’s sacrifice by glamorizing its cause.