{"id":5701,"date":"2026-06-18T05:11:18","date_gmt":"2026-06-18T05:11:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.desiringgodchurch.org\/web\/?p=5701"},"modified":"2026-06-18T05:11:18","modified_gmt":"2026-06-18T05:11:18","slug":"what-killing-a-snake-reminded-me-about-slaying-sin","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.desiringgodchurch.org\/web\/what-killing-a-snake-reminded-me-about-slaying-sin\/","title":{"rendered":"What killing a snake reminded me about slaying sin"},"content":{"rendered":"

“There’s a snake in our backyard.” That’s not a tagline of Woody from Toy Story, but my own wife’s words as she called me late Wednesday afternoon at work. A copperhead snake had been spotted by Andrew and Katie had managed to wedge it within a retaining wall crevice with hedge shears. Its long, Hershey’s kiss patterned tail was exposed down the wall. My job was to finish things off when I got home and keep the family protected. On the way, I called my dad and got his counsel. Thankfully, Katie had reached out to Josh Carver, so he and his family were there by the time I arrived at our house. I posted to the guys group to pray, we prayed in person for protection, made a quick battle plan, and went out there to finish the job.<\/p>\n

Only, we quickly found that our initial plan wouldn’t work. The shearers weren’t around the snake. To remove them and get the snake on the ground would only make it go wild and potentially strike or get away. Neither option we liked. So, we decided to hold it’s tail with a trash-grabber tool in order to entice it to unveil its head for us to strike. Sure enough, with Josh grabbing to tail, it did put its head out to strike, and Josh was able to pin its head to the wall and then I gave it a finishing blow. A few minutes later, we buried it in a secluded spot in the backyard and took time to look for more.<\/p>\n

So why would I tell this story in a blog post? How does this have anything to do with God’s Word or what it means to live lives treasuring Jesus?<\/p>\n

As I reflected a bit, it occurred to me that the story elicits some pretty good parallels with Biblically slaying our sin.<\/p>\n

Theologian John Owen famously referenced Romans 8:13 as the backdrop and key text for his book, “On the Mortification of Sin”. This great Roman verse says this, “For if you live according to the flesh you will die, but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live.” We know death is what we’ve all earned from our sin (Romans 6:23). But as people who have been united by faith to Jesus, we have been brought from death to life (Romans 6:3-4; Ephesians 2:4-6). So as people truly living in Christ, by His Spirit’s power, we’re to, “put to death the deeds of the body,” (Romans 8:13) and all that, “is earthly in you,” (Colossians 3:5).<\/p>\n

So what does that snake slaying story remind us biblically about slaying sin?<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. It must be spotted and exposed, by us and others.<\/strong> “11 Take no part in the unfruitful works of darkness, but instead expose them. 12 For it is shameful even to speak of the things that they do in secret. 13 But when anything is exposed by the light it becomes visible, 14 for anything that becomes visible is light. Therefore it says, ‘Awake O sleeper, and arise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you,'” (Ephesians 5:11-14). Without Andrew’s sharp eyes looking and Katie’s decisive action to expose the snake and prevent retreat, it never would have been killed. We are to be people willing to kill sin by forsaking it whenever the Lord reveals it. Sometimes this will be revealed by others spotting it in us, then lovingly expressing and exposing it, so we can bring it to the light in confession and turn back to Christ. Other times, God may call us to lovingly spot and expose sin in our dear brother or sisters. This is to be done discreetly and once the log has been taken out of our eye first. But love dictates that darkness be recognized and exposed. Proverbs 27:6 reminds us, “Faithful are the wounds of a friend; profuse are the kisses of an enemy.” Who is your faithful friend-in-Christ with permission to spot and expose your sin, that it may be brought to the light and forsaken? Who is the friend you’ve given permission to expose your pride that you, by the Spirit, might kill it?<\/li>\n
  2. Slaying our sin requires a premeditated battle plan.<\/strong> Any fight for the Christian must first include prayer. We’re to abide in Christ and then we bear spiritual fruit that lasts and gives God glory, because apart from Jesus, we can do nothing (John 15:4-5). Since the battle is the Lord’s (1 Samuel 17:47), we’d be foolish to not start and end depending on Him and seeking His glory in prayer. Following this, much sin necessitates fleeing (like Joseph with Potiphar’s wife) and subsequently starving it, to replace it with something that the Lord has for us. Ephesians 4:27-28 says, “and give no opportunity to the devil. 28 Let the thief no longer steal, but rather let him labor, doing honest work with his own hands, so that he may have something to share with anyone in need.” Other premeditated battle plans, like the serpent in my yard, require immediate strikes to eliminate the opportunity of it infecting us further with its deadly venom.<\/li>\n
  3. A friend for the battle is essential.<\/strong> The snake would have gotten away or bitten me without Josh being there. Many times in our fight against sin, we don’t see what’s lurking in our blind spots ready to strike. We often don’t know what to do when the situation on the ground changes and we need to make adjustments. We need someone else to be praying with and for us and graciously hold us accountable. We need someone to spur us on to not give up and encourage us. This may or may not be the person who first spotted and exposed our sin or the one we opened up to about our own, or lovingly addressed. This is an all-out war, a battle to the death, for the purity of our souls. God calls us to community and especially close friendships. And above all, there is Jesus, The “friend who sticks closer than a brother,” (Proverbs 18:24b) who is victorious in every battle.<\/li>\n
  4. Victory through the Spirit of Christ brings life. <\/strong>“…if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live,” (Romans 8:13b). When the snake was buried and we knew it could no longer harm anyone, we got a burst of energy and immediately looked for more snakes all over the yard. It spurred us on to more battles. Not only does victory in slaying our sin by the Spirit, keep us from death – it boosts us to move forward in other battles with the unquenchable joy of the Lord’s faithful and kind presence. His presence where there is “fullness of joy” and “pleasures forevermore” (Psalms 16:11) is what our souls ultimately crave and desire most.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    So when we fight to kill our sin in humility, in His strength, with a battleplan, and a brother or sister by our side, we can be more than conquerors (Romans 8:37) because of Him who loves us and is with us. And we can not only kill our sin, but live with promised hope that, “The God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet,” (Romans 16:20).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    “There’s a snake in our backyard.” That’s not a tagline of Woody from Toy Story, but my own wife’s words as she called me late Wednesday afternoon at work. A…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":18,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"give_campaign_id":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5701","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.desiringgodchurch.org\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5701","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.desiringgodchurch.org\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.desiringgodchurch.org\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.desiringgodchurch.org\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/18"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.desiringgodchurch.org\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5701"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/www.desiringgodchurch.org\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5701\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5710,"href":"https:\/\/www.desiringgodchurch.org\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5701\/revisions\/5710"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.desiringgodchurch.org\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5701"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.desiringgodchurch.org\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5701"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.desiringgodchurch.org\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5701"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}