Jesus
never sinned; the rest of us – well, yes. Intentional or not, sin
is sin. In and of ourselves, we are eternally lost and have
absolutely no hope. That little thought is both depressing and
discouraging to daily living. But, I thank God for Jesus who provides
a way out of this situation and gives us an eternal hope.
Some
today, will fellowship almost anyone, regardless of how they lead
their lives; but, this is Biblically wrong. In the passage below, we
have a Biblical standard as to what is unacceptable. Take a moment to
reflect on this message of the Scriptures and how it affects your
life. And if you are caught up in any of these activities- STOP!
1
Corinthians 6 ( World English
Bible )
1Co
6:9, Or don’t you know that the unrighteous will not inherit the
Kingdom of God? Don’t be deceived. Neither the sexually immoral,
nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor male prostitutes, nor homosexuals,
1Co 6:10, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor
slanderers, nor extortioners, will inherit the Kingdom of God.
(see also Galatians 5:19-21)
1Co 6:11, Such were some of you, but you were washed. But you were
sanctified. But you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and
in the Spirit of our God.
The
Biblical for stopping is repentance, which basically means to stop
what you are doing that is sinful and act as God would have you to
do. You can’t do that old sinful practice any longer; not even a
little bit. But what if you should do it again, only once? Then ask
God for forgiveness and change your life – again. At this point, I
think it would be appropriate to consider the following passage from
the first letter of the apostle John...
1
John 1 (WEB)
1Jo
1:6, If we say that we have fellowship with him and walk in the
darkness, we lie, and don’t tell the truth.
1Jo 1:7, But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we
have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ, his
Son, cleanses us from all sin.
1Jo 1:8, If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves,
and the truth is not in us.
1Jo 1:9, If we confess our sins, he is faithful and righteous
to forgive us the sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
1Jo 1:10, If we say that we haven’t sinned, we make him a liar, and
his word is not in us.
No
one is perfect in the absolute sense; we all fall short in
thought, word or attitude at some time or another. In the relative
sense, we are perfect, if we daily endeavor to be the
very best we can possibly be and go before God’s throne of Grace
and ask for forgiveness for what we have done wrong.
I
like to think of all this using an old illustration about a teacher
trying to teach perfection. The teacher draws a long line on a
blackboard and invites a student to come up and quickly write
a line over the one just drawn. When the student does this, there
will be some errors. But the student TRIED and that’s the point.
Jesus takes care of those errors (sin) and makes things right on his
part. We have to continually try on ours.
Let
God’s standard of living be your standard, do not willingly
tolerate anything you know to be sinful. Take another look at the
picture at the top of the post, think about it and do what the Bible
tells you to do!