NIP IT IN THE BUD
Possibly the five wisest words ever spoken on network TV were spoken by Barney Fife on the Andy Griffith Show in the 1960's.
Barney: "Nip it in the bud! You got to nip it in the bud! ... Nip it! You go read any book you want on the subject of child discipline, and you'll find that every one of 'em is in favor of bud-nippin'... Only one way to take care of it."
Andy: "Nip it." Barney: "In the bud."
"Nip it in the Bud!" Now there's an excellent philosophy, but it didn't originate with Barney Fife.
A bud is a flower before it blooms. In early spring "buds" begin to appear on my cherry trees. It isn't too long until the bud blooms into a flower. After that comes the fruit and the seed for another cherry tree.
To "nip it in the bud," is to cut off the bud before it can flower and produce seed. It is an idiom that means deal with a potential problem before it can grow into something serious or disaster. Nipping it in the bud keeps a situation or thing from blooming into a full scale sin.
To nip a process in the bud is to stop it from flowering completely.
That is a picture of what James 1:14-15 is saying.
· The bud of sin is found the temptation to lust.
· To nip sin in the bud means to cut off the enticement that tempts us to lust.
James 1:27 admonishes the Christian "to keep himself unspotted from the world." Don't allow sin to even get started in your life!
