Can I have just a taste? Why God tells us to flee from sin

Have you ever felt like God is holding out on you?  Keeping things from you that seem so good?  Things you really want?   Asking God the question: "Why can't I have that, why can't I look at that?  Why do people who don't follow you get to enjoy themselves, while I am missing out?"  Why is getting drunk bad if I'm with my Christian brothers and sisters.  Checking out girls is ok I'm not doing anything.  Swearing and telling dirty jokes is fine, I'm just being a cool Christian."  The problem with everything above is the mis-understanding of who God is and what sin does.

"So flee youthful passions and pursue righteousness, faith, love, and peace, along with those who call on the Lord from a pure heart."  2 Timothy 2:22
   
"Flee from sexual immorality..." 1 Corinthians 6:18

The reason God asks us to flee is because sin gives us a false hope.  Sin promises something that it can't deliver.  When you say to yourself: "it's ok for me to look at attractive women, I'm just looking."  You are actually taking the affection you have for your wife and placing it on someone else.  You're telling your mind that your wife is not enough.  You are putting another image in her place.  As small as it may seem, it's lust and it's selfish.

The root of all sin is self.  Our evil desires allow us to be drug away and enticed.  Sin is an inward focused thing.  It goes directly against what God calls us to, no matter how big or small we think it is.  It keeps us from being outward focused.  Either guilt and shame will hold us captive or our lack of recognition of the 'small' sins will keep us from truly living for Christ. 

Therefore, we must let the light shine on our lives and stop hiding in darkness and fear, or in a place of 'it's no big deal'.  To live for Jesus, we must stop looking at how to avoid sin or seeing how much we can get away with, but start asking ourselves the question: "Is what I'm doing honoring Christ and furthering His kingdom?"  When we do this, the worry about God withholding goes away, because the selfish desire that sin presents is revealed as what it truly is: A lie that satan tries to cover in false truth.