Killing Somethings

Last week we did a birds-eye view of what the Word of God has to say about how Christians should live.

We talked about how we are to react to wordly impulses. We are to be dead to them, corpses do not react to stimuli.

We alive in Christ so we are to fix our eyes our energy, out attention, our affection on things above. Christ is above He is the giver of life. There are certain things, activities, thought processes that we need to rid ourselves of, like old dirty garments, and others that we need to put on…

Today and in the weeks to come we will examine more closely what it means to take off old garments and put on new garments. what it means to be dead to the world and at the same time alive in Christ.

Today we will do that by truly examining Colossians 3:5.

Colossians 3:5 (LSB)

5 Therefore, consider the members of your earthly body as dead to sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and greed, which is idolatry.

This idea of putting to death in the Greek vernacular is a command that insists on a decisive action… the command is so strong that if instead of translating the exact words we were to translate the connotation, the idea, thought inspired by those words, the message would must likely read:

“Mortify it! Do it now! Do it resolutely!”

Of course God has already done thing, but Christians are to know this, count on it to the true, and act accordingly.

So, there must be a conscious effort to slay the remaining sin in our flesh

Romans 8:13–14 (LSB)

13 for if you are living according to the flesh, you must die, but if by the Spirit you are putting to death the practices of the body, you will live.

14 For as many as are being led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God.

If you are living according to the flesh you have not the Spirit of God and those without the Spirit will die.

But if you have received the Spirit of God then you are continually putting to death the sins that are committed out of your flesh.

This is a fight people which you are never to get tired of engaging.

What was said to the Hebrews is true for us right now to:

Hebrews 12:4 (LSB)

4 You have not yet resisted to the point of shedding blood in your striving against sin.

We live in a time and a place where we can come to church to sit in padded seats and air conditioning. We have not been called to resist unto the point to where we are killed. We are in a battle but we are not in the thicket of the battle. Not to say that that day may not come.

But if we want to keep our sexual immorality, impurities, passions, evil desires, and greed, then when the time comes when you have to decide whether or not you will keep you life or loose if for Christ, you will keep it.

what does the Word mean by sexual immorality:

The word here is porneia. Although this is where we get the word pornography from

Pornography: Printed or visual material containing the explicit description or display of sexual organs or activity, intended to stimulate erotic rather than aesthetic emotional feelings.

In the the Scriptures, this word denotes, adultery, fornication, homosexuality, lesbianism, sexual activity with an animal, sexual activity with close relatives, sexual activity with divorced people (Mk 10:11-12). It is a catchall term that denotes all sexual activity outside of the band of marriage between male and female.

Consider the following passage:

Ephesians 5:3 (LSB)

3 But sexual immorality or any impurity or greed must not even be named among you, as is proper among saints;

Meaning not even a hint of this type of behaviour should be found among us, which bring us to the second item in this list which is impurity.

this word akatarsia goes beyond acts of sexual sin to encompass evil thoughts and intentions as well.

Thats why I do not recommend long engagements and/or a long courtship process. If you are not thinking in concepts of getting married, you have no business dating. That is flirting with temptation.

1 Corinthians 7:8–9 (LSB)

8 But I say to the unmarried and to widows that it is good for them if they remain even as I.

9 But if they do not have self-control, let them marry, for it is better to marry than to burn with passion.

You’ve been sitting next to each other, holding hands, kissing on each other for months and years I guarantee you that you are having sexual thoughts if not already acting on them.

Date to find your mate, as soon as you realize this guy is too stupid for your to marry him, let him go. As soon as you realize, this woman will bankrupt me, let her go. Or accept the stupidity, accept her extravagance, bite the bullet and marry or you will be living in sin.

You are not commanded to marry the person you love. You are commanded to love the person you marry. If you do not believe you can love them let them go.

The apostle adds to impurity pathos which means passion (lustful). and epithymia evil desire which is a lustful craving

Even Jesus said:

Matthew 5:28 (LSB)

28 but I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman to lust for her has already committed adultery with her in his heart.

These things are simply not ok for us and we must not let our children think it is ok for them to live this way. This will undoubtedly create some friction between you and your children because the rest of the world is telling them something different.

The last thing in this short list of vices is greed pleonexia which is the insatiable desire to gain more, especially of things that are forbidden.

Exodus 20:17 (LSB)

17 “You shall not covet your neighbor’s house; you shall not covet your neighbor’s wife or his male slave or his female slave or his ox or his donkey or anything that belongs to your neighbor.”

This is an attitude or a bent of the heart before it steals, before it engages sexually with someone else’s spouse, before it actually murders someone because of envy and jealousy.

When people engage in either greed or the sexual sins Paul has cataloged, they follow their desires rather than God’s, in essence worshiping themselves—which is idolatry

Ephesians 4:27 (LSB)

27 and do not give the devil an opportunity.

Do not be deceived, every sin committed by human hands has its roots firmly planted in the human mind. To stop doing wrong, it is imperative to stop thinking wrongly.

We have got to remember that:

Colossians 3:6–7 (LSB)

6 On account of these things, the wrath of God is coming upon the sons of disobedience,

7 and in them you also once walked, when you were living in them.

Taken literally, putting anything to death can seem harsh. But modern medicine does have the understanding that putting something to death can lead to life. Consider chemotherapy for cancer. The body is doused in radiation treatment with the expectation that the chemo will kill the cancer cells, thereby granting life to the body. Sometimes to truly experience life with God, something must end.

And the devil will try to convince you that you cannot do this. This is a half true which is how the devil speaks. In your own power it is indeed impossible but 2 Peter 1:3 tells us that his divine power has given us everything we need for life and godliness. Also, remember that greater is He that is in you, than he that is in the world (1John 4:4)