If you’re familiar with American pop culture at all, you’ve probably heard of tribbles.  In case you haven’t, here’s the back story in a nutshell:

In an episode of Star Trek: The Original Series called The Trouble with Tribbles, the crew of the Enterprise comes across a cute little purring furball called a “tribble.”  Unfortunately, they quickly discover that tribbles are very prolific.  They are apparently born pregnant, and bear litters of ten new tribbles approximately every twelve hours.  Over the course of just a few days, you end up with something like the picture above.

Sin is like a tribble.

As our pastor preached on Sunday about feeding (or not feeding) our sin, I realized that tribbles are an excellent illustration of sin.  Keep in mind that every illustration will break down at some point.  But some significant parallels can be drawn.

At first, sin looks pleasant and appealing.  Like a tribble.

But there’s a problem.

Spock: I’ve been running computations on their rate of reproduction. The figures are taking an alarming direction.
[…and in a later scene…]
N. Baris: There must be thousands of them.
Kirk: Hundreds of thousands.
Spock: 1,771,561. That’s assuming one tribble, multiplying with an average litter of 10, producing a new generation every 12 hours over a period of three days.

McCoy: Do you know what you get if you feed a tribble too much?
Kirk: A fat tribble.
McCoy: No. You get a whole bunch of hungry little tribbles.

When you feed a tribble, it multiplies.  It multiplies so quickly you can’t keep up, and before you know it, you are buried.  You no longer have a use for it, and you can’t readily get rid of it.  You are scrambling just to keep up, and prevent the problem from getting any further out of hand.

Isn’t sin a lot like that?  You feed the sin, and it multiplies until, sooner or later, you’re in over your head.  You may wish you could turn back the clock, but you can’t.  You have to start where you are and try to dig your way out.

The Solution

The solution? Don’t feed it in the first place.

McCoy: Jim, I think I’ve got it. All we’ve got to do is quit feeding them. We quit feeding them, they stop breeding!

Simple, right?  But, in the case, of sin, harder than it sounds.

I think I’m going to put a mini-furball (a “tribble,” if you will”) somewhere I’ll see it regularly, as a reminder to not feed the sin, so it won’t multiply like a tribble.

This post is being shared at Teach Me Tuesday, Titus 2 Tuesday.

Hopefully it should be obvious that these images are not mine.  They are owned by (I think) Paramount and are used here in an editorial capacity.  I’ve added some captioned versions, though, in case you’d like to Pin this post: