How Then Can I Do This?

Genesis 39:9 (KJV)

How then can I do this great wickedness, and sin against God?

Joseph is alone in a house. The door is closed. His master is away, and nobody in Egypt would ever know. And his reason for refusing is not that he might be caught.

And sin against God. That is the whole answer. Joseph is not calculating consequences; he is thinking about a relationship. There is Someone in the room whether or not anyone else is.

This is the difference between behaving and being. Rules hold you while there is a risk of exposure. Only love holds you in an empty house. That is why the strongest people are not the ones with the most self-control but the ones with the clearest sense of who they belong to.

Notice too that he had decided in advance. The verse reads like a settled position, not a struggle. Whatever is coming for you this month, decide your answer now — before the door closes.