Colossians 3:7-8

Colossians 3:7 You used to do these things when your life was still part of this world. 

Before you get on your high horse remember, you once walked in these things too. You’ve got to love Paul, because his writing keeps you humble or should keep you humble.

He’s saying in prior verses before this one that we should put to death whatever in us is worldly, because God’s wrath comes on those who are disobedient—those who are practicing these ungodly things. However, before you point your finger at how bad off someone else is, remember you once walked in these things too. Not only that, but you walked in these things when you were living in them. In other words, you didn’t just dabble here and there, you were in it.

Colossians 3:8 But now is the time to get rid of anger, rage, malicious behavior, slander, and dirty language. 

Now you must put away those worldly desires and ways of life. It won’t be easy because we’re so used to being surrounded by these things. Yet, we can be encouraged. If Paul is telling us to put them away, that’s because they can be put away. But how? The Power of the Holy Spirit will enable you to put away worldly desires and replace them with godly desires. It will take some work. It will take saying no to familiar things. It will require discomfort. But it can be done and it will be worth it.

Colossians 3:6

So put to death the sinful, earthly things lurking within you. Have nothing to do with sexual immorality, impurity, lust, and evil desires. Don’t be greedy, for a greedy person is an idolater, worshiping the things of this world. – Colossians 3:5 NLT

Because of these sins, the anger of God is coming. – Colossians 3:6 NLT

Why these sins in particular? I can’t say I know the answer to this. So I’ll simply share thoughts.

1) It could be that these were very specific struggles for the church in Colossae. Remember, Christianity isn’t something people have grown up with at this time, so there has been a lot of dabbling with other religions and beliefs.

2) Scripture says no sin so clearly affects the body like sexual sin. “Run from sexual sin! No other sin so clearly affects the body as this one does. For sexual immorality is a sin against your own body (1 Corinthians 6:18 NLT).” So, the importance of God’s anger due to these sins can’t be stressed enough.

3) If greed can lead to idolatry, then it’s leading people away from God. Greed won’t lead people to serve but to be served. It won’t lead to generosity but to stinginess. And if it’s that easy to idolize materials, how much easier will it become to idolize one’s self?

All in all, I’d say any of the above is a start for why these sins can infer God’s anger. Let’s be clear, God hates all sin. Sin places a barrier between us and Him. God does not want a barrier between us, that’s why He sent Jesus. God knows the full effect of sin, and in His love, He wants to save us from its destructive patterns. The question is, do we want to be saved?

Colossians 3:5

So put to death the sinful, earthly things lurking within you. Have nothing to do with sexual immorality, impurity, lust, and evil desires. Don’t be greedy, for a greedy person is an idolater, worshiping the things of this world. – Colossians 3:5 NLT

I’ve never been sure why there has been a debate on whether porn is ok. Jesus said if you even look at another with lust, you’ve committed adultery, so porn would definitely qualify as sin.

God knows we’re imperfect. He knows our struggle with sin, but He also knows the power He’s given us to be able to overcome sin. We wouldn’t be told to put something to death if we had no control over it or no ability to obey the command. We’re told to put sexual immorality, impurity, lust, and evil desires to death and have nothing to do with it. So yes, sex in any form outside of God’s design for a husband and wife would need to be put to death. If the question is how far is too far when the topic is sex related, that’s a pretty good indicator that whatever you’re considering is probably too far.

Get this. Not far behind, greed is mentioned. A greedy person is an idolater. Yikes! A greedy person worships materials over our Master–God. An idolater replaces God with stuff. He replaces the eternal with the temporary.

Put the greed, the immorality, and the worldly desires to death. If there is anything in your life that you believe you simply can’t give up, knowing it’s not good for you, it’s becoming or has become your idol and certainly the thing that needs to be put to death. Ask God to help you do it today!

When Slavery Looks Good – Podcast

Be careful when slavery starts to look good. Crazy, right? Why would slavery look good? How can bondage be appealing? Believe it or not, it can be, and I’ll tell you why in this episode.

https://www.buzzsprout.com/1806754/

Harvest Time

Don’t be misled—you cannot mock the justice of God. You will always harvest what you plant. Those who live only to satisfy their own sinful nature will harvest decay and death from that sinful nature. But those who live to please the Spirit will harvest everlasting life from the Spirit. – Galatians 6:7‭-‬8 NLT

At first, I read this verse and thought, “hhmmm that’s kind of scary, harvesting what I’ve planted…” I’ll admit, I’ve planted some pretty poor things.

I’ve planted bad relationship habits. I’ve planted poor self images or poor influences on my self-image. I’ve planted some bad decisions. I don’t want to harvest any of that!

While it’s true that I’ve planted those things in my life, I’m grateful for what happened when Christ became my life. My life in Christ is to live to please the Spirit. Those mistakes and sins were planted, but Jesus uprooted it in my life. Now, if I’m still living to please my sinful nature, that’s different, but since I have a new life in Christ, I don’t have to worry about the harvest of death and decay from those things.

In fact, I have a brand new harvest to look forward to–everlasting life from the Spirit. Now, that’s a harvest I can’t wait to reap.

DO GOOD TODAY

Sin isn’t only about dong things you shouldn’t. We purposely complicate sin. We complicate it to make it beneficial for us. Is this really a sin? How far can I really go with this? If you have to ask, you probably shouldn’t.

Now, let’s focus on the other aspect of sin in James 4:17

Remember, it is sin to know what you ought to do and then not do it.
James 4:17 NLT

James says when you don’t do what you should, it’s a sin. How about that? There’s a reason Proverbs says, “don’t withhold good when you can do it (3:27)”, because you should do it. In fact, it’s a sin. Why?

I believe it’s because when you’ve experienced the Goodness of God, you shouldn’t keep it to yourself. The Goodness of God should spew into every aspect of your life, making you want to do good whenever and wherever you can because you hope people will see God in it!

What good can you do today? Who came to mind for you to help or simply encourage today? Do it today. Don’t withhold it!

Slavery Looks Good

Be careful when slavery starts to look good. Crazy, right? Why would slavery look good? How can bondage be appealing? Believe it or not, it can be.

“If only the Lord had killed us back in Egypt,” they moaned. “There we sat around pots filled with meat and ate all the bread we wanted. But now you have brought us into this wilderness to starve us all to death.” – Exodus 16:3 NLT

Sometimes, what’s familiar is appealing because it’s familiar, even if it was slavery. It might not have been good for us, but it’s what we know, so we do it.

The Israelites had only ever known slavery at this point in their history. They might have historically knew who they were as a nation, but circumstantially, this generation had always been slaves. So when things were difficult in the wilderness, they wanted to be back in Egypt. If they couldn’t be in Egypt, in slavery might I add, they questioned why they couldn’t be dead rather than face their current conditions.

That sounds crazy, doesn’t it? Yet, we fall prey to the same ideas. Our slavery looks different. We choose sin rather than walk freely in Christ. Our suicide and self-harm rates are high because current situations seem unbearable. Life is overwhelming, and it just seems like the struggles of the past were much simpler and much more manageable. Perhaps we bind ourselves to today’s worries and try to manage the busyness of everyday life.

My question is, have we painted the past with rose colored glasses? Even currently, have we masked personal forms of slavery as “necessities”? Have we voluntarily shackled ourselves with stressful schedules, unrealistic expectations, and heated politics as a part of life?

I think we can all agree. No one would willingly go into slavery. But can we also agree that we are becoming bound to things on our own? Can we agree that the list above probably began with the best of intentions but now feels like a burdening restraint? Would anyone admit that slavery might have looked good today or in the past because it seemed easy or simply was just familiar or a part of our routine?

I’ll start. I admit it.

Conquer Evil

Don’t let evil conquer you, but conquer evil by doing good. – Romans 12:21 NLT

This statement seems easy enough right? Don’t let evil conquer you. Hopefully, most people wouldn’t want that to happen. Certainly, a Christian wouldn’t want that to happen.

If we look through this chapter in its entirety it’s about using your spiritual gifts, serving others, and loving and living in harmony even with your enemies. It’s about choosing kindness rather than revenge when we feel entitled to the latter.

Sin is evil. Any time we’re choosing to disobey God’s will, we’re sinning. So when we opt for revenge, we’re giving evil room in our lives. When we don’t use our gifts to glorify God but for selfish ambition, evil just gained a little more influence. Choosing hurt over harmony is not conquering evil with good.

Let’s not box evil into demonic activity and witchcraft. Evil isn’t just human sacrifice or mass murders. As hard as it is to stomach, those aren’t the only things that are evil. Evil is sin in general. Sin is against the will of God. So we must conquer evil in all its forms with the truth and goodness of God all the time.

After all, we are more than conquerors through Christ Jesus (Romans 8:37).

Romans 12:19

Dear friends, never take revenge. Leave that to the righteous anger of God. For the Scriptures say, “I will take revenge; I will pay them back,” says the Lord.
Romans 12:19 NLT

Steer away from being vengeful. There is a reason God says vengeance is His. He knows what needs to be done.

First off, I don’t believe we can issue vengeance in the right way. We could never issue vengeance without being sinful in our human nature and human anger.

Secondly, God knows what needs to happen in order to draw the person or persons to Him. We’d seek revenge to make us feel better and make them suffer. Vengeance is His in order to draw people to Him.

Thirdly, whatever God has in mind is far better than what we’d have in mind. Again, God will work in a way to draw people to Him, not to just hurt them because they hurt us. That’s why His anger is a righteous anger.

In the end, that’s what everything is supposed to be about. Drawing people to God.  If we have a problem with that because people have been so mean to us then that’s a great reminder for us of why vengeance should be His and not ours.

Revelation 9

What happens in Revelation 9 is horrendous. It’s downright scary. I hate horror movies, so I don’t watch them. I guarantee, they can’t compare to the horror that will come as prophesied in Revelation 9.

I’m reading this, and have read this wondering, why? Why do these awful things have to happen in the end? Is there no other way Lord?

You’ve got locusts that can sting like scorpions who are like horses and given the ability to torture people for five months. Then you have horses with heads like lions billowing fire, smoke, and sulfur from their mouths with tails like snakes with the power to injure people. All this doesn’t even count the things that happen in chapter eight.

So I return to my question. Why, Lord? I think this is awful and can’t imagine it. The Bible says people will beg for death and it won’t come. An even bigger question is how could anyone endure this and not cry out in repentance to God? Jeremiah said it best:

“The human heart is the most deceitful of all things, and desperately wicked. Who really knows how bad it is? But I, the Lord, search all hearts and examine secret motives. I give all people their due rewards, according to what their actions deserve.” – Jeremiah 17:9‭-‬10 NLT

Even after all this terror, some people will still not turn to God. The problem of the heart is what’s in the heart. After all this devastation what’s in people’s hearts doesn’t change.

In the end, those who truly desire wickedness will not turn from wickedness. It’s in their hearts. All the bad that is to come won’t make them stop because the heart won’t stop desiring what is wicked.

But the people who did not die in these plagues still refused to repent of their evil deeds and turn to God. They continued to worship demons and idols made of gold, silver, bronze, stone, and wood—idols that can neither see nor hear nor walk! And they did not repent of their murders or their witchcraft or their sexual immorality or their thefts. – Revelation 9:20‭-‬21 NLT