Some people stumble into sin. Some fall. Some jump. While others play around on the edges, seeing how close they can get to it without doing it, until they plunge right back in.
The very first thing we must do, when coming out of the world, out of sin and away from our old habits, is admit that we are powerless, and that our lives are unmanageable outside of JESUS CHRIST. One way to test whether you have done well with this or need to give it more work is to see how you view the world. Do you look on it with dread or with longing? Do you miss it or are you Overjoyed to be out of it?
Some people, secretly longing for rather than fearing sin, try to see how close they can get to it without an actual fall. They maintain friendships with those who have chosen to continue in sin and who try to tempt them to do likewise. They participate in unholy and spiritually unbeneficial things. They go to movies and watch television programs. Foolishly thinking, "I can handle this now," they play around the edges of sin, only to be amazed when they fall in and then are shocked at how difficult it is to get back out!
Outside of JESUS CHRIST, we are powerless over sin and the god of this world! Some of us never really grasp this concept. This teaches that to try to get near this sin without committing it is as sensible as to see how near you can get to a grizzly bear without becoming his next meal! The one who has accepted their powerlessness and has developed a deep sense of the terrible, destructive power that sin can exercise over his or her life, stays as far away from it as is humanly possible.
If you don't want to fall, or stumble, then stay away from those people, places and things that will stir in you a sense of false boldness to see how close you can get to the sin without actually sinning. That's just a simple and practical way of stating the reality that Freedom speaks to.
Pay attention! Will you start? Accept that you are powerless outside of JESUS CHRIST. Do this over again thoroughly, thoughtfully, and above all prayerfully. Remember your powerlessness and emotional unmanageability and beware. "Put ye on the LORD JESUS CHRIST, and make no provision for the flesh, to fulfill the lusts thereof" ~ Romans 13:14.
Dear LORD, Will we ever learn? Please teach us, by YOUR HOLY GHOST and through YOUR Word how helpless we are, without YOU, against the flesh, the world, and the devil. Teach us to abide in YOU and to keep as much distance between ourselves and sin as is humanly possible. Allow us my LORD, my GOD, JESUS CHRIST, to learn from Scripture rather than from bitter experience. Thank YOU for all of the Blessings YOU bestow upon us all. I Praise & Glorify YOU LORD JESUS, and I Pray and ask this all in YOUR Precious Name. Amen.
Reading Romans Chapter 13 this morning….