One of the most famous stories ever is the story of the prodigal son. We all know it... A son who demands his inheritance and gets it. He gets it only to spend it on wrongful pleasures and when he comes to the end of himself, he repentantly comes to his father broke with a contrite heart. Amazingly, his father lovingly receives him back to the family and gives a great celebration with a little cheer from the other obedient son. It is a story that symbolized the love of God, as a father willing to receive any of his children who are willing to turn from sin and come back to the family.
It is a beautiful story that brings up many questions. Why did the prodigal son leave in the first place? What made him want to leave the comfort and care of his family? Have you seen this before? Have you seen people leave the family of faith and indulge in many regretful acts? What can we learn from this? What could have stopped him? We’ll take a look at some of these questions and possible explanations of why prodigals go prodigal.
Some leave the family of faith lured by the pleasures of sin but blinded to the consequences.. Hebrews 11:25 mentions that there is pleasure in sin. A lot of times prodigals want to gratify the desire for pleasure but become blind to the negative consequences of it. They forget key verses like Hebrews 18:20a “The soul that sinneth, it shall die...” or Romans 6:23a "For the wages of sin is death...” The negative consequences of death seem out of the picture that prodigals are blind to. There are also other aspects of the pleasure of sin that needs to be addressed Prodigals also seem blind to the fact that the pleasure of sin is so fleeting. The short term pleasure is proskairos in the Greek which can also be translated to in season, i.e. temporary. Is the temporary pleasure of sin really worth gratifying?
Sadly many prodigals seem blinded to the temporary season of pleasure indulging in sin. Knowing the short term and fleeting pleasure of sin may help to reconsider whether to indulge in it. Is the ‘temporariness of pleasure’ really worth going after? That is not all the needs to be considered.
Not also to prodigals seem blinded to the negative consequences and temporary pleasure of sin, they forget other forces at work. We will look at two which I like to label the internal and external forces. First the internal force refers to the sinful desires inside of us that all must resist. James 1:15 mentions these desires.., “But each one is tempted when by his own evil desires he is lured away and enticed. Then after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, gives birth to death.” Prodigals must be aware of these evil desires and obey the command in Galatians 5: 16, “So I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh.” This coupled by other forces gives light to why prodigals go prodigal. We will now turn to the other force.
Second, the external force of sin is mentioned in Genesis 4:7, “ But if you do not do what is right, sin is crouching at your door; it desires to have you, but you must rule over it." Here Cain is warned by God that sin has a force working outside or external of his internal desires. Sin itself acts as a force that is longing for him with the ultimate consequence of death. We see later that Cain does indulge with the consequence of death in him killing his brother Abel.
In conclusion, we see that prodigals become prodigal for a number of reasons and much can be learned about this. When faced with the temptation to sin, they don’t consider whether the consequences of sin and its fleeting pleasures are worth indulging. Understanding the internal and external forces at work of sin give way to knowing the necessity to walk by the Spirit. Sadly when prodigals fail to walk by the Spirit the consequences of death becomes apparent.
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