August 17
“Therefore consider the members of your earthly body as dead to immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and greed, which amounts to idolatry, for it is on account of these things that the wrath of God will come.” (Colossians 3:5-6)
Perhaps the verse above hints at the distinctions I have made in sins of the body, mind, and heart, with immorality referring to sins of the body, impurity (and the allowing of impure inputs such as pornography inside of us) referring to sins of the mind, and passion and evil desires referring to sins of the heart. But I don’t want to make too much of these distinctions because I think that all three are probably involved to some extent in every immoral thought or action; one of them may take the lead and the others may follow, or the lead may switch off between them. Consider these distinctions as generalizations and maybe even over simplifications whose purpose is to perhaps help some of us understand our sin tendencies a little better and thereby be better equipped to overcome our sins.
The reason I am making distinctions between sins of the body, mind, and heart because as we analyze why we stumble and fall into various sins of immorality I think it is helpful to try to peel back what is happening inside of us. Asking questions about what is motivating us or where our hurts are or what we think the benefits are that we are deriving from immoral thoughts and actions can be a helpful start in developing effective strategies for overcoming temptation in these areas. Because these sins of immorality are so pervasive in society and in the church, I plan to be as thorough as I can and take a number of days to dig into this area in as much detail as my abilities allow. It is also the area where I have struggled a great deal, so I hope to convey some things that have been helpful to me in gaining victory in this area.
Let me lay out here the game plan for victory and an outline of where I am headed with this topic:
Immoral Sins of the Body: if you are committing or contemplating committing any immoral acts with others of any nature, any acts at all that God has clearly prohibited in either the old testament or new testament (adultery, fornication, homosexuality, being effeminate, transgender, etc.). STOP. FLEE. QUIT. MOVE. LEAVE. EXIT. No discussion, no persuasion, no weighing pros and cons, no protecting financial interests, no excuses, just GET OUT of there and stop committing those acts. Period. End of discussion. “Love” of this nature is not love at all, not the way God defines it. God will show you the way out and help you. Cry out to Him. Look to Him and just LEAVE. To me, this is Christianity 101, and if you are unwilling to stop committing immorality, you should examine whether you really belong to Christ. I won’t say much more about this because to me it is so clear and so basic. Just stop doing it, period.
Tomorrow we will look at our game plan for sins of the mind and sins of the heart.