Sin is a choice. David made many bad choices, one leading to the next.

David sins in not going out to war. He is being lazy. He should have done as kings were supposed to do and go out to battle.

David sins in watching Bathsheba bathe. He surely knew that was a private act. If he had been out to war this never would have happened. This sin was caused by the first sin. He should have turned and walked away if he accidently spotted her.

David sins in setting his mind on her. He watches her. He notices her beauty. He asks about her. This sin only happened because of the sin of staying and watching her. One sin leads to the next. He should have set his mind on the Lord.

David sends for her. He’s allowed his thoughts to get to the point of wanting to act on them. Maybe he justifies it thinking that he’ll just see what she’s like up close, maybe she won’t seem as tempting.

We are excellent justifiers. If you had a string of thoughts about why your addiction was okay and not really an addiction and so on and so forth during the last lesson about laziness, you were trying to justify yourself. I recognize it because I’ve done it. We can talk ourselves in and out of anything.

David “sleeps” with her, the kind of sleep that produces a baby. It was sin and only happened because he took the step of sending for her.

At any time up until this point this sin could have been avoided. The problem was he didn’t want to avoid it. We don’t accidently sin. It started in our thoughts. We let the thought sit. We think on it. We dwell on it. We turn it over in our minds to the point where we start to worry that we won’t get this thing that we want unless we act on it. Then we act. Sin doesn’t start with an action. It starts with a thought.

How do we avoid sin?

We renew our minds with Scripture. We think about God, the only one who is true, noble, right, pure, lovely, excellent and praiseworthy. (See Phil. 4:8)

We abide with Christ and know His presence is with us all the time.