To minimize something is to lessen, to reduce, to make
smaller or to keep to a minimum. It is also to belittle, or to dismiss, to
shorten, or to play down or to make light of something. It can also be to
underestimate the importance of something, and thus to brush it off as not
important or as no big deal.
I find that many people who are caught up in sinful
practices make it their practice to minimize their sin and to call it something
else, both to alleviate guilt and to excuse away their sinful behaviors. And,
that is a trap that anyone of us can fall into if we are not careful, and if we
are not diligent to be completely honest concerning our faults and the sins we
commit.
For example, someone might be living in addiction to a
particular sin, or perhaps to multiple sins, and so he or she will minimize the
magnitude of the sin by calling it something other than addiction. He or she
will look at each sin as a single incident, a small failure, and will refuse to
look at the whole big picture. And, so these individuals keep on in their
sinful practices because they refuse to see that they are living in addiction.
So, some will say, “But sin is sin, right?” True. And, they
will say, “But we all sin.” We probably all do from time to time, although
there may be people who are living in sinless perfection. I can’t discount
that. But, what do the scriptures say? They teach that we are not to sin, that
we are not to make it our practice. They allow for the fact that we might sin
at some time (1 Jn. 2:1-2), but they make it real clear that we are not to walk
in sin or else we don’t have eternal life with God (Rom. 8:1-17; Gal. 5:16-21;
1 Jn. 1:5-9).
So, the Bible differentiates between an occasional sin,
committed irregularly, and usually not the same sin over and over again, and
regular habitual sinful practices which are repeated over and over and over
again. The Bible does not say we have to live in sinless perfection, but it
does say that we have to not live in sinful practices (habits, addictions),
willfully, knowingly and in God’s face defiantly repeating the same sins over
and over again.
Minimizing God’s Truth
On the flip side of this is the minimizing of truth. For, in
order to keep on in sinful practices, and to keep on minimizing the magnitude
of sin, some people (or a lot of people) have turned to minimizing the truth of
God’s Word as another way to alleviate guilt and to keep on in their sinful
ways.
So, instead of teaching or receiving the whole counsel of
God, which Paul said he taught, they cherry pick scriptures to support a
watered-down version of the gospel of our salvation, or they follow after
people who teach a diluted gospel which appeals to human flesh. Then, they
console themselves in their sin, saying God’s grace covers it all, and they
also console themselves with the false hope of eternal life with God.
And, there are many false teachers and false shepherds of
the people today, especially here in America, who gladly say what human flesh
wants to hear.
These false teachers secretly bring in destructive heresies.
Many people follow their sensuality, too, and the way of truth is being blasphemed.
These false teachers exploit people with false words. They revel in their
deceptions, while they feast with you. They have eyes full of adultery,
insatiable for sin. They have hearts trained in greed, and they entice unsteady
souls.
And, “they entice by sensual passions of the flesh those who are barely escaping from those who live in error. They promise them freedom, but they themselves are slaves of corruption. For whatever overcomes a person, to that he is enslaved.” (See 2 Peter 2:1-22; cf. Jude 1).
Basically, what this is talking about today is what we call
the “cheap grace” gospel. It ignores the bulk of scriptures which teach on the
subjects of sin, judgment, repentance, obedience, salvation and eternal life.
And, it minimizes the truth of God’s Word to a few hand-picked scriptures taken
out of context which reduce the gospel to nothing more than a mere
acknowledgment of Christ as the only prerequisite to eternal life with God.
In this diluted gospel, “faith” in Jesus Christ is rarely
defined, although scripture goes to great detail to define exactly what this
faith should look like. And, they forget that even the demons believe in God,
and they tremble. And, they ignore the fact that faith is faith in action, and
that our faith is proved genuine by what we do, not by just what we profess.
See to It
See to it that no one takes you captive by philosophy and empty deceit, according to human tradition, according to the elemental spirits of the world, and not according to Christ. Colossians 2:8 ESV
So, how do we guard against being taken captive by
humanistic philosophy based on the elemental spirits of the world, and not
according to Christ?
First of all, we need to own up to our own sin, and we have
to be honest with God and with others to whom we owe a confession of sin
regarding the sin. And, we have to not minimize the magnitude of the sin,
either, or to call it something other than what it is. We have to not lie to
ourselves, in other words. We have to be completely honest, and we do this by
allowing the Spirit of God to show us the reality of any sins in our lives, and
then we have to not deny what he shows us. But, we have to own up to it.
Next, we have to remove from our lives all input which is
leading us in a wrong direction. For, if we are filling our minds with the
attitudes, behaviors and philosophies of this sinful world via the media or any
other source, then that is what is going to be in our thinking, and that is
what is going to come out in our behaviors, too, for “garbage in, garbage out,”
as the saying goes.
Then, we have to be filling our minds with the right things.
We have to be studying the Word of God in its fullness IN CONTEXT, and then we
need to be putting the Word of God into practice in our daily lives, putting
off the flesh daily and daily putting on Christ and his righteousness. We have
to not ignore the scriptures we don’t like, but we need to take it all to God
in prayer and seek his counsel for how it is to be applied to our lives.
“Therefore, as you received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in him, rooted and built up in him and established in the faith, just as you were taught, abounding in thanksgiving.” Colossians 2:6-7 ESV
This really is the crux of the whole matter here. We don’t “get
saved” and then live our lives however we want and then one day when we die we
get to go to heaven.
If we have received Christ Jesus as Savior and Lord
(owner-master) of our lives, we must also walk in him. We must live holy and
godly lives set apart to God and to his service. We must no longer be conformed
to the ways of this sinful world, but we must be transformed (changed) in heart
and mind of the Spirit of God away from sin to God and to his righteousness.
By the Spirit, we must put off all that is of our sinful
flesh, and this continues daily, and we must put on Christ and his holiness and
righteousness via applying the truths of His Word to our daily lives. And, we
must walk (in lifestyle) according to the Spirit and not according to our flesh
(Lu. 9:23-25; Rom. 6:1-23; Rom. 8:1-17; Gal. 5:16-24; Eph. 4:17-24; 1 Jn.
1:5-9).
So, instead of minimizing sin, we are honest with God and
with others to whom honesty is due, regarding our sin. And, then we turn away
from the sin, by the grace of God, and in the power of God’s Spirit we turn to
God to walk now in his holiness and righteousness, which is pleasing to Him.
And, we forsake all idols of men and all humanistic
philosophy and all input of this world which might lead us into sin, and then
we fill our minds and our hearts with what is of God, and with what is wholesome,
and which will bear fruit of righteousness and not fruit of sinful practices.
And, then we put into action what the Word of God tells us,
and we walk in obedience to our Lord’s commands. And, then we can have victory
over slavery to sin, and we can now become slaves of Christ’s righteousness, by
God’s grace. Amen!
Have
Thine Own Way, Lord
Words
by Adelaide A. Pollard, 1907
Music
by George C. Stebbins, 1907
Have Thine own way, Lord! Have Thine
own way!
Thou art the potter, I am the clay.
Mold me and make me after Thy will,
While I am waiting, yielded and still.
Have Thine own way, Lord! Have Thine
own way!
Search me and try me, Master, today!
Whiter than snow, Lord, wash me just
now,
As in Thy presence humbly I bow.
Have Thine own way, Lord! Have Thine
own way!
Wounded and weary, help me I pray!
Power, all power, surely is Thine!
Touch me and heal me, Savior divine!
Have Thine own way, Lord! Have Thine
own way!
Hold o'er my being absolute sway.
Fill with Thy Spirit till all shall see
Christ only, always, living in me!
*copyright
status is public domain
Sunday, November 24, 2019
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