Don't Be A Slave to Sin

When they kept on questioning him, he straightened up and said to them, "Let any one of you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her."  - John 8:7

Read a newspaper, watch a news broadcast on television, or log onto any news website. You'll see a profusion of human behavior at its worst. One has to wonder, "Is this really what we have become?" Now, don't get me wrong. I'm not an angel by any stretch of the imagination. So, I am not excluding, nor excusing myself from any of this (Isaiah 53:6).

Yes, there's a smattering of "happy-huggy-good-feeling" stories, but for the most part it is the bad or "negative" news that jumps out at us. Some people blame the media for highlighting only the bad. Some studies have shown that "bad" news definitely outweighs the "good" by as much as 17:1.

But, truth be told, even if you're not much of a traditional news media person (i.e., television, newspaper), we still catch a lot of negativity through social networking and old-fashioned conversation. It appears there isn't any way to avoid it even if we wanted to. But, why is this? Why is it so difficult for us to be "good?"

The Bible provides a good answer for all of this anger, discord, and dissension. It tells us that the problem lies with "us" and our sinful nature. I'm not talking about theory or practice here. I mean our very nature is "sinful." Sin permeates our entire being. This sounds ugly, doesn't it? Well, it should because it describes our warped souls (Ecclesiastes 7:20).

The Bibles refers to our "sinful flesh" (Romans 8:3), or our "earthly nature (Colossians 3:5). Romans 6:6 tells us that we are ruled by sin. Everything we do or say while living in this world is affected by our sinful and corrupt nature. That means that throughout our mortal lives we struggle with sin.

The apostle Paul expounded on our naturally rebellious nature against God (Romans 3:18). Unfortunately, many make the mistake that once you become a Christian this inherently, sinful nature is magically erased. We inherited our sin from Adam and it is a permanent part of our being. Sorry!

Does this mean that we are slaves to sin? It may be true that we are born to sin, but we are not born a slave to sin. We only become habitual sinners when we give in to our sinful nature ( Romans 6:16; 7:14-23). Perhaps somewhere along the line you got the idea that we (man) cannot resist our sinful urges, or overcome our sinful nature. Not true! Christians can, and must say no to sin.

We are endowed with the power of God through the Holy Spirit to oppose our sinful urges, and the authority of Our Father, whom we, as Christians, now serve. What this means is that sin has no real control over us unless we allow it (Romans 6:17-18, 22; 2 Corinthians 10:3-5).

So where does this leave us? Can we do anything to change the "bad" news that we see all around us? Is there anything that we can do individually to make a difference? As we have just discussed, we all have an innate, sinful nature. We can't change this fact, it's part of our being, However, we don't have to succumb to it.

Make no mistake, it will take some effort on your part. Not everyone is willing to make the effort to do so, thus kidding themselves into thinking they are saved. We don't lose our sinful nature simply by coming to Christ (or being born again). Scripture tells us that sin never goes away, and that we will wrestle with it our entire lives (Romans 5:12 ).

Despite this, there is good news. Due to the empowering of the Holy Spirit, we can overcome our sinful attributes. This may be accomplished by eliminating every obstacle that sin presents in our lives, and resisting the temptation of sin (Galatians 5:16).

Each of us have been given divine assistance to help combat sin. When the Spirit of God takes up residence within us, we, as believers, are supplied with the power to withstand and defeat the urge to sin. In this world, there will always be sin and the negative effects it produces. But, with God's help we don't have to let it control our lives.

Scripture: Galatians 2:20; 1 Peter 2:11; 1 John 3:6-9; Ephesians 6:11-12; 1 Peter 5:8-9

Prayer: Holy Father, graciously listen to my prayers; and free my heart from the temptations of evil thoughts; that I may be worthy of having the Holy Spirit reside within me. Amen

May your day be blessed,

Charlene