No, Diet Mt. Dew Isn't Okay

“Stolen water is sweet, and bread eaten in secret is pleasant.” -Proverbs 9:17

“We’re out of Mt. Dew right now…but we do have Diet. Will that work?”

I don’t know what world this waiter is living in that he thinks there is any similarity between real Mt. Dew and Diet Mt. Dew. It’s all in the sugar—or lack thereof. You can’t trick me with your Aspartame. Sure, it might taste sweet at first and trick me into thinking its sugary goodness but that aftertaste exposes that its’ a sham.

This is what Solomon is telling us in Proverbs 9:17. Stolen water has an aftertaste. Just like that horrible fake sugar it seems for a moment like the real thing, but its far from it. This is why verse 18 tells us “…her guests are in the depth of Sheol.” This is where fake sugar leads you—death. (Yes, my analogy breaks down here because Mt. Dew isn’t exactly healthy for me—but humor me.)

In the context, this little spiel about stolen water is the invitation of the adulterous woman. She’s attempting to lure him by the forbidden. There is some pleasure in doing something in secret. Our fallen nature likes the challenge. We place ourselves in the path of danger and doing this gives our body an adrenaline rush.

There is also something that happens within us when someone says, “no!” We like to exert our freedom and individuality. Even if we didn’t previously desire a thing, the very fact that somebody tells us we cannot have it makes us want the thing. This was the first trick of the serpent in the garden, and it still works even today.

I tried a bit of an experiment with this a few years ago. A couple kids, about 6-7 years old, were happily playing with their remote-control cars. Me, being the playful guy I am, wanted to give it a go to see if it was fun. I asked them if I could play with them. I’m not beyond this. Nor am I above what happened next.

These little kids had the audacity to tell me “No!” I think a normal and more mature adult would have simply left them to their kid toys and got in my very real instead of settling for a poor substitute. But I’m not that normal and more mature adult, so I decided to use this as an opportunity to put Romans 7:7 to the test. That’s where Paul says basically, “I didn’t know what it meant to not covet until someone said ‘do not covet’.” Basically, him saying I didn’t want to walk on the guy’s grass until he had a sign in the yard that said not to.

In order to test this, I decided to pull a pen out of my pocket. Not just a normal pen, though, it was a Pilot G2 pen. Even though these are the best pens ever, I realized for my experiment I’d need to jazz it up a little more. I told the kids that it was a shame they wouldn’t let me have a turn with their remote-control cars, because I was wanting to let them try out my super cool pen that could do awesome tricks with a click of a button.

They were intrigued. (I’d hooked them).

I told them they couldn’t have it. I really emphasized that point. And then I walked a little off in the distance and started playing with my super cool toy. Way cooler than those stale old RC cars. I was having the time of my life playing with this awesome pen, doing sweet tricks with it, when these little dudes came crawling back. They wanted the pen.

I got to play with the RC cars.

They got to play with a normal every day Pilot G2 pen. Clearly, they were ripped off. But that’s what happens when we let the lure of the forbidden draw us. Just like Diet Mt. Dew it’s not the real thing. That’s the case with the lure of the forbidden woman, and it’s the case with the lure of any sin. It offers life and joy but it ends up being about as exciting as a $2 pen from Wal-Mart. And you usually sacrifice something valuable (like RC cars or your marriage) in order to get it.

I’m not quite as awful of a person as this story makes me sound. I laughed a little and drew the kids back over to play with my new RC cars. I even kindly traded them back, because I needed that pen for a writing project I was working on. But I could have really taught them a lesson about the lure of the forbidden and let them keep that pen and their mouth full of gravel (Proverbs 20:17).

I hope you know that I’m being a little silly here. The reality is that this little interaction says just as much about my heart as it does theirs. I didn’t like being told “no” by a couple little kids. And the “lure of the forbidden” was playing just as much in my heart as it was theirs. This is our human nature. Stolen water is sweet. But it’s only so because we are too dull to value the real thing. We’re too foolish to taste the sweetness of our own cisterns.

Jesus was the only one to break through this madness.

He was offered the same temptation. “Tell that rock to turn into bread.” You’re hungry. It’s forbidden (you aren’t supposed to eat during this fast), and it’ll taste like the best stoney-bread you’ve ever had. Jesus was offered stolen water and secret bread, and He turned it down. He passed the test where we’ve always failed. He knew the real thing and wouldn’t accept a substitute.

He’s now working in our hearts to give us a taste for the real thing. To give us taste beds that can sniff out the nasty aspartame of enemy lies before it even touches our lips. When we’re so satisfied with what is real, the forbidden will hold less allure. We’ll know it for the shame that it is.