Wednesday, February 1, 2017, 7:35 a.m. – The Lord Jesus put in mind the song “Not by Might.” Speak, Lord, your words
to my heart. I read Colossians 3:1-17
(NASB).
Things Above
(vv. 1-4)
Therefore if you have been raised up with Christ, keep
seeking the things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set
your mind on the things above, not on the things that are on earth. For you
have died and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ, who is our
life, is revealed, then you also will be revealed with Him in glory.
IF we have believed in Jesus
Christ, and IF we have been born anew of the Spirit of God, we have died with
Christ to sin, and we have been resurrected with Christ to newness of life, to
be lived to Christ and to his righteousness. This means that the process of
sanctification has already begun in our lives, and we have already begun seeking
things above, so we need to keep doing this. Yet, we need to be careful that we
don’t slip back into seeking after the things of this life and setting our
minds on the things of this world, instead of on Christ, who is our life.
So, how do we do this? Well,
for one, we don’t do this in our own strength and willpower. Only in the
strength of the Lord, and in the power and working of His Spirit now living
within us, can we fight off (resist) the devil, flee sinful lusts, escape from
temptation to sin, draw near to God, and seek after heavenly things in place of
worldly things. If we try to resist the devil and flee sinful lusts in our own
human strength and wisdom, we are bound to fail, because our flesh is trying to
fight off the flesh, and that is counterproductive. And, thus, it might be easy
to make excuses for sin or to find ways around God’s commands, instead of
submitting to our Lord.
As well, if we desire to truly
seek after things above and not after the things of this earth, we have to be
willing to go the distance with God. We can’t bargain with God or hold back
from him anything he requires or desires of us. In other words, if we want to
be wholly the Lord’s, following him wherever he leads us, and no longer walking
according to the ways of our sinful flesh, then we have to cooperate with the
Spirit of God in our lives in removing from our lives all which hinders our
spiritual walks or which leads us into sin, as well as we must allow our Lord
to cleanse our lives of all sin. In other words, we can’t flee sinful lusts if daily
we feed those lusts via TV, movies, video games, social media, the internet,
secular music and the like.
Dead to Sin (vv.
5-11)
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 because of these things that the wrath of God will come
upon the sons of disobedience, and in them you also once walked, when you were
living in them. But now you also, put them all aside: anger, wrath, malice,
slander, and abusive speech from your mouth. Do not lie to one another, since
you laid aside the old self with its evil practices, and have put on the new
self who is being renewed to a true knowledge according to the image of the One
who created him— a renewal in which there is no distinction between Greek and
Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave and freeman, but
Christ is all, and in all.
From what I have read, and
from what I have heard, and from what I have personally experienced, it appears
to me that the vast majority of American (professing) Christians do not
consider the members of their earthly bodies as dead to sin but alive to God
and to his righteousness. And, that is why the false grace gospel has attracted
the hearts of so many people, because they want to believe they are forgiven of
their sins, and that they have the promise of heaven when they die, but that
God requires no repentance, no obedience and no submission of them, and that he
is pleased with them no matter what they do. They want to believe that they can
keep on sinning willfully against their Lord in specific areas and yet still be
saved from their sins. But, does this even make sense? No! It doesn’t!
For, Jesus died on a cross
for our sins not just so we can escape hell and have the promise of heaven when
we die. Indeed, He died so that we might die to sin and live to righteousness.
He died that we might no longer live for ourselves, but for him who gave his
life up for us. He died that we might become the righteousness of God in Christ.
He died to redeem us from every lawless deed, and to purify for Himself a people
for His own possession, zealous for good deeds. And, he died that the
righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us who walk not
according to the flesh, but who walk (conduct our lives) according to the
Spirit (1 Pet. 2:24; 2 Co. 5:15, 21; Tit. 2:11-14; Ro. 8:1-14).
It is my belief that many
professing Christians, who may or may not be real Christians, are still
enslaved to some specific signature sins because they truly do not want to be
free, although they will say they do, and they will even feel as though they
do. But, they are not willing to go the distance with God in eradicating from
their lives what leads them into sin, in fleeing the sin, and in putting the
sin to death. So, they play with temptation to sin, and they toy with sin in
their minds, and they daily take into their minds and hearts what only serves
to tempt them even more, and then they seem dumbfounded as to why they can’t
seem to gain victory over sin. Well, I can tell you from experience that we
have to get dead serious about sin, and we can’t toy with it even a little, if
we want to experience true victory in Christ.
Put On Love (vv.
12-17)
So, as those who have been chosen of God, holy and
beloved, put on a heart of compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and
patience; bearing with one another, and forgiving each other, whoever has a
complaint against anyone; just as the Lord forgave you, so also should you.
Beyond all these things put on love, which is the perfect bond of unity. Let
the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one
body; and be thankful. Let the word of Christ richly dwell within you, with all
wisdom teaching and admonishing one another with psalms and hymns and spiritual
songs, singing with thankfulness in your hearts to God. Whatever you do in word
or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks through Him to God
the Father.
We can’t put on love if we
are not willing to put off sin. When we sin against others, that is the
opposite of love. For, love does no harm to its neighbor. And, if your sin is
looking at pornography, and you think you are not harming anyone, think again!
You are harming yourself, for one, and, if you are married, you are committing
adultery against your spouse. And, you are impacting how your own mind views
other people and how you treat others, based on how your mind views them as sex
objects rather than as people with hearts and minds, who should be treated with
respect and value.
So, if we want to love others
with god-like love, which is what we are commanded to do, then we need to put
off sin – in the power and working of the Spirit within us as we fully
cooperate with the Spirit in his work. And, we must believe that Jesus, via his
death and resurrection, fully conquered sin so that we no longer should be
enslaved to sin, because Jesus set us free! Yes, temptation is powerful! I
know!! But, God is more powerful, and he already took care of sin for us. We
just have to yield to him, do what he says, and daily put on the armor of God
with which to fight off Satan’s evil schemes against us. We have to, too, adopt
God’s view of sin instead of man’s, i.e. we have to truly hate the sin and what
it does to us or we will never want to be free from it. We must, in our minds,
be dead to sin.
Then, we can truly love
others in the way in which this passage describes.
Not by Might / An
Original Work / March 29, 2012
Based off Zechariah 4
“Not by might, and not by power,
But by My Spirit,” says our Lord, God.
“Mighty mountain, O what are you?
Before Christ you will become level
ground.”
The hands of our Lord, Savior God,
Formed the foundation of His church.
He alone will complete the work
He began in His servants’ hearts and
minds.
Who despises small beginnings?
Much can be done in Christ’s strength
within.
Be of courage, and trust your Lord.
All sufficient He is for all your
needs.
Opposition and apathy:
Holy Spirit will set us free!
We can be overcomers in our faith
In our Lord, and our Savior, King.
Don’t be troubled by God’s timing.
He has ev’rything in His command.
Hasten to obey His commands fully,
Trusting Him to work all for good.
Not by might nor by human strength,
But by God’s power; strength within;
My dependency now on His working
His will in me in righteousness.
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