2nd Corinthians 10:1-6, “Now I Paul myself beseech you by the meekness and gentleness of Christ, who in presence am base among you, but being absent am bold toward you: But I beseech you, that I may not be bold when I am present with that confidence, wherewith I think to be bold against some, which think of us as if we walked according to the flesh. For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war after the flesh: (For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds;) Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ; And having in a readiness to revenge all disobedience, when your obedience is fulfilled.”
I receive thousands of ministry emails each year. Many people, especially
Christian men, share their struggles with sin with me. They tell me how
difficult fighting off temptation is, and that they fail regularly to avoid
sin in their life. They want my humble Christian advice from the Holy Bible.
I am always glad to help people for Christ. Dear friend, you CAN have the
victory in your life over sin. I have several helpful suggestions for you in
this needful article.
Hate The Sin In Your Life
I received an email yesterday from a frustrated young woman. She accused me of being “hateful.” She was particularly upset about my articles preaching against feminism and rebellious women. Dear friend, I make no apologies for being hateful against sin and evil. God commands every believer to HATE EVIL. Psalms 97:10, “Ye that love the LORD, hate evil: he preserveth the souls of his saints; he delivereth them out of the hand of the wicked.” What saith the Scripture? Proverb:8:13, “The fear of the LORD is to hate evil: pride, and arrogancy, and the evil way, and the froward mouth, do I hate.” So, yes, I do hate some things, and so should you if you fear God.
“If you want to never do anything that is terribly wicked, then you never do anything that is slightly wicked.” —Pastor Jack Hyles, a life-changing quote from the sermon, “Unjust In The Least.”
l have been watching several reality crime TV series; namely, Forensic Files, Murder She Solved, Cold Case Files, Bizarre Murders, et cetera. I have studied the cases to see the commonalities between them. In nearly every case these horrific evil deeds were preceded by a longtime pattern of sinful bad habits (drunkenness, gambling, drug abuse, the love of money, lust, hatred of people, jealousy, et cetera). Dr. Hyles' preceding quote rings true in all of these cases. If you want to never do anything that is terribly wicked, then you never do anything that is slightly wicked. We need a revival in our homes, churches and communities of right thinking. I said RIGHT THINKING!!!
That is what our text Scripture passage teaches us:
2nd Corinthians 10:5-6, “Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ; And having in a readiness to revenge all disobedience, when your obedience is fulfilled.”
The “knowledge of God” is the inspired Word of God. When a sinful thought enters into our mind, we need to immediately seize that wrong thought and bring it into subjection to the Word of God. The next verse says we should have “a readiness” to “revenge all disobedience.” I believe that is what the Bible means in my favorite Bible verse from Proverbs 4:23, “Keep thy heart with all diligence; for out of it are the issues of life.” People don't just wake up one day and go murder someone! You don't just wake up and go rob a bank somewhere! You don't just wake up and commit unthinkable evil deeds. Behind every tragedy in human character was a slow process of wicked thinking!
These passages of Scripture are marvellous to help us overcome the sins in our life. And may I say, NO ONE can live about committing sin. We can all live above reproach (hiding our sins). But no one can live without sinning, it is not possible. As long as we have to live in these fleshly earthly bodies, we will have to struggle with the inherent sin nature. We are all sinners by nature and by choice. However, in any given instant we CAN choose not to sin. Since I am a sinner by birth, having inherited the DNA of Adam who is the father of the human race, I will not always choose not to sin. Sin is ALWAYS a choice. Homosexuality is a choice. No one is “born that way,” which is a popular fallacy nowadays. We all make our own choices, and sin is always a choice!
Evil is premeditated sin. A man may snap and murder someone in a moment of heated rage on the roadway. It happens everyday across the United States. That is not evil, it is sin. It is definitely a crime either way. Now if a man goes home to get his gun after an incident, and then returns to murder the driver of the other vehicle, that is evil because it was premeditated. That is why we have Murder one and murder two designations in our legal system. A man may strike his neighbour and kill him, but only be charged with second degree murder, because it wasn't his intention to kill the other person. First degree murder is when a person intends on killing their victim.
This is why Jesus said when we pray to ask God to “deliver us from evil” and not “from sin.” Luke 11:4, “And forgive us our sins; for we also forgive every one that is indebted to us. And lead us not into temptation; but deliver us from evil.” We cannot prevent committing sin, but no one has to commit evil. We can pray for God to help us not to sin, but we know that it would be impossible never to sin, as long as we live in this human body. But we need not ever commit evil. If sin is allowed to go unchecked, then it will progress into evil. Smoking a joint of Marijuana is a sin. Our body is the temple of the Holy Spirit (1st Corinthians 3:16-17). Therefore, the child of God ought never defile our body, because it is sacred in the sight of God. But if we smoke Marijuana (which is commonly known as The Gateway Drug because it leads to more deadly addictive drugs), then we might end up a crack cocaine or heroin addict down the road. Drug abuse is evil. I understand that it is a chemical dependency which requires medical intervention, but it is evil because we allowed it to happen. Satan is behind the drug addiction epidemic across the United States!!!
Dear friend, I
challenge you to start saying to yourself daily: “I HATE THE SIN IN MY
LIFE!” I hate the sin in my life because it might lead to evil one day.
Therefore, I refuse to drink any booze. I refuse to gamble or take foolish
risks. I refuse to walk with ungodly or unwise people, because they will
influence me and I don't want to become foolish like them. In many of the
reality crime series TV shows that I have seen, I noticed that in many cases
a person got into big trouble because they met and become close friends with
bad people. Now, I believe that most people who get into trouble with the
law are not bad people. They are good people who are simply at a bad point
in their life.
Be Careful Who And What You Allow Into Your Life
However, there are some really bad people in this sick world today! In one reality TV crime show I saw, a young girl and her female friend ran away from home to get away from their strict religious parents. They were hitchhiking and offered a ride by a young man who was involved with Satanism. He drove the two girls to a friend's cottage on the outskirts of town. Long story short, over a short period of time one of the girls became sexually involved with one of the boys. The deranged young man was infatuated with Satanism and human sacrifice, so he convinced the other girl to murder her friend to obtain Satanic power. You can find this insane true story on the internet. The point here is that these innocent girls went hitchhiking and met some evil lunatics! If they hadn't allowed a defiant rebellious attitude to exist in their minds, they wouldn't have run away from home. Consequently, one girl is dead and the other rotting in prison for life. Be careful who you choose to become friends with! Be careful who you allow into your life!
I read
something great last year on a gas station sign while driving. The sign
read: “Whatever you allow into your life becomes a part of you!” That is
wisdom my friend, and you would be wise to remember that true statement!
Once you read a book, it becomes a part of you. Once you meet a person and
become intimately involved with them, they become a part of your life. Be
careful who and what you allow into your life! This is what I believe the
Bible means in Proverbs 4:23, “Keep thy heart with all diligence; for out
of it are the issues of life.” Be careful what you allow to remain in
your mind. The Bible says we are what we think! Proverbs 23:7, “For as
he thinketh in his heart, so is he: Eat and drink, saith he to thee; but
his heart is not with thee.”
Do Not Become Your Own God
Every Christian is guilty of backsliding at times. We have all done it frequently. Sometimes we may backslide for an hour, a day, a week, months or even for years. King David backslid and commit adultery with Bath-Sheba. He unintentionally got her pregnant. To hide his evil, the shameful king conspired to have Bath-Sheba's husband Uriah murdered on the battlefield, and it was so. David was a scumbag! The man after God's own heart, David, was backslidden for the next 8 months. In time God sent the prophet Nathan to confront David about his sins. God had given David ample time to repent but he didn't, so God intervened.
Proverbs 14:14, “The backslider in heart shall be filled with his own ways: and a good man shall be satisfied from himself.” I love the often overlooked last part of this verse. What does it mean for a good man to “be satisfied from himself”? Well, the backslider is filled with HIS OWN WAYS. So the oppossite is the answer. A good man is satisfied from himself, meaning that he doesn't have to have everything done his way. A good man lives by truth and principle, following what he knows to be right and pleasing to God, even though it may cost him more money, use up more time and inconvenience him more. In a word, obedience to God. Acts 5:29, “Then Peter and the other apostles answered and said, We ought to obey God rather than men.”
It is not
difficult to understand why some people do unthinkable things to each other.
It all boils down to the word selfishness. That is what backsliding is,
being FILLED WITH ONE'S OWN WAYS! But the good person who is satisfied from
them self lives on a higher plane of life. They live by a higher set of
rules than their own book. They fear God and obey His statues instead of
worshipping them self. When Eve ate the forbidden fruit, she did so because
the serpent had offered her Godhood. Eve literally wanted to become HER OWN
GOD. Had Eve been satisfied from herself, she would have refused the
forbidden fruit and obeyed God. This well illustrates backsliding dear
reader. Eve was FILLED WITH HER OWN WAYS. She was blinded by her own lust
for power and control. When a person become addicted to booze, immoral sex,
illegal drugs, stealing or anything sinful in their life, they become
disillusioned to reality. They don't see people getting hurt by their
destructive actions, they only see opportunities to fulfil their lusts. We
must fight this wrong kind of thinking that is centered in our own sinful
lusts, desires and ambitions. The Bible repeatedly exhorts us to live for
God!
Overcoming The Lusts Of The Flesh
Many men struggle with sexual lust. I recommend for every man to memorize a handful of helpful Scripture passages about living right. 1st Peter 2:11, “Dearly beloved, I beseech you as strangers and pilgrims, abstain from fleshly lusts, which war against the soul;” If you have a sinful thought enter into your mind, captivate that thought as the Bible teaches in 2nd Corinthians 10:5 and bring it into obedience to Christ. This is the only way. Psalms 119:9, “Wherewithal shall a young man cleanse his way? by taking heed thereto according to thy word.” The way you overcome lust is by obeying the Bible to abstain from fleshly lusts. The way you overcome the sin of lying is to obey the Bible by telling the truth. Psalms 119:11, “Thy word have I hid in mine heart, that I might not sin against thee.” Psalms 119:16, “I will delight myself in thy statutes: I will not forget thy word.”
Abstaining from fleshly lusts is a YOKE OF WOOD, it is difficult, no doubt; but succumbing to those lusts may eventually enslave you with a YOKE OF IRON! There is nothing more contemptible than a male who wants to enjoy the physical pleasures of sex without being a man to accept the corresponding responsibilities that come with it! That thought in itself, if you are any kind of a decent and respectable man at all, should cause you to avoid irresponsible whoremongering adulterous behavior. ...
