2 Timothy 2:21-22 ESV
“If anyone cleanses himself from what is dishonorable, he will be a vessel for honorable use, set apart as holy, useful to the master of the house, ready for every good work. So flee youthful passions and pursue righteousness, faith, love, and peace, along with those who call on the Lord from a pure heart.”
In today’s modern market-driven “churches” here in America
many people are not being taught to cleanse themselves from what is
dishonorable. They are not being taught to die with Christ to sin and to live
to God and to his righteousness. They are not being trained in holy living and
in walks of obedience to the Lord. For they are being told that a mere
acknowledgment of Christ and of his death and resurrection or a mere profession
of faith in Jesus Christ is enough to secure them salvation and eternal life
with God.
And so they are being sold a lie. They are being convinced
that they can be saved from their sins and have heaven guaranteed them merely
because they made a one-time confession of Christ as their Lord and Savior,
regardless of how they live from that point forward. For they are being taught
that they can be saved and on their way to heaven even if they do not flee
youthful passions and if they do not pursue righteousness, faith, love, and
peace, along with those who call on the Lord from a pure heart.
And so many of them never leave their lives of sin behind
them. Many of them remain intoxicated (addicted, in slavery) to sin, and so
they continue in deliberate and habitual sin convinced their sins are forgiven
and heaven is their eternal home and that God will not judge them for their
sins of idolatry and adultery and rebellion against the Lord and against his
commands. And many of them are addicted to sexual immorality and to its various
means of expression, including to pornography and to self-gratification.
And so for those who are married, they are regularly
committing adultery against their spouses. For Jesus said that to lust after
another is to commit adultery with that person in his heart. So adultery can be
just in the mind and in the heart and via images on a computer screen without
there ever having to be any physical contact with another person outside of marriage.
And there are many people who have made sexual immorality their god, their idol
which they worship in place of true worship of the one true God.
But this should not be! This should not be the hallmark of
the life of one who calls himself a Christian and a follower of Jesus Christ. For
we are to be set apart (unlike, different) from the world, and we are to be those
who are daily dying to sin and to self, and who are daily walking in obedience
to our Lord and to his commands (New Covenant), by the Spirit. It doesn’t mean
we are perfect people or that we never sin, but sin should no longer have
mastery over our lives to where we obey its passions and desires.
Instead we should be those who love God and whose desire is
for him to do his will. We should have put off the old flesh with its sinful
passions and desires and we should now be walking with Christ in moral purity
and in honesty, faithfulness, uprightness, godliness, and in self-control. And
we should be those who call on God with pure (unadulterated) hearts and minds
and who are following him in obedience and in faithfulness and in walks of
holiness and righteousness, in the power and strength of God.
2 Timothy 2:23-25 ESV
“Have nothing to do with foolish, ignorant controversies; you know that they breed quarrels. And the Lord's servant must not be quarrelsome but kind to everyone, able to teach, patiently enduring evil, correcting his opponents with gentleness.”
If you are a true servant of the Lord Jesus, and you are
walking in purity of devotion to him, and sin is not your practice, but
righteousness and holiness are your practice, then you are likely to be opposed
by those who are still walking in sin, who are still deliberately and
habitually sinning against the Lord and against other humans. For they might
find you offensive to them because your lifestyle is a continual reminder to
them of how they should be living when they know they are not living that way
at all.
Now, as followers of Jesus Christ, and as his body parts, we
are to have concern for one another, and we are instructed to exhort one
another daily so that none of us will be hardened by sin’s deceitfulness. And
so if we are aware that others who profess faith in Jesus Christ are living in
sin and not in holiness and in righteousness, then we have an obligation to
speak with them and to confront them lovingly with their sin and to try to lead
them to forsake their sins and to walk in holiness and in righteousness.
[Ac
2:42-47; Rom 6:1-23; Rom 8:1-14; Rom 12:1-8; 1 Co 12:1-31; Gal 6:1-5; Eph 1:22;
Eph 2:19-22; Eph 4:1-16; Eph 5:17-30; Col 1:18; Col 2:19; Col 3:16; Heb 3:13; Jas 5:20; 1 Pet 2:4-6; Jude 1:22-23]
Now I recommend that women talk with women and men with men
unless a man and a woman are a couple. And one thing we have to guard against in
these confrontations, as loving as they may be to begin with, is that they do
not turn into quarrels. So, if the one we are confronting is argumentative with
us then we should not continue the discussion but we should walk away from it
so that it does not become heated, which is very possible that it could go that
way if you are talking with someone caught deep in sin.
2 Timothy 2:25-26 ESV
“God may perhaps grant them repentance leading to a knowledge of the truth, and they may come to their senses and escape from the snare of the devil, after being captured by him to do his will.”
The goal of all loving confrontations should be in the hope
that the ones who are still sinning against God would come to genuine repentance.
And repentance is not just a mere acknowledgment of sin but it is turning away
from sin to follow Jesus in obedience. It is like making a spiritual U-turn.
You were going the wrong direction so you turn and now you go the opposite
direction. And we are only able to do that in the power of God who gifts us
with the ability to repent if we will receive and apply that gift to our lives.
My heart aches over the many who are professing faith in
Jesus Christ but who are still living under the control of Satan and the flesh.
My heart aches because I know that heaven is not their eternal destiny, even
though they profess it to be so with their lips. For Jesus said that not everyone
who says to him, “Lord, Lord,” will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the
one DOING the will of God the Father. And many will hear him say one day, “I
never new you. Depart from me you workers of lawlessness” (Matt 7:21-23).
So, don’t be one of those. And don’t fight against those who
are trying to help you to be free from your chains of addiction to sin. Let
others help you to freedom. And please believe the Scriptures when they tell
you that if you live in (walk in) sin, and not in righteousness and holiness
and obedience to the Lord, that you will not inherit eternal life with God but
you will die in your sins regardless of what faith in Christ you declared with
your lips. Please take God and his word seriously. Your eternity depends on it.
On Bended Knee
By Robert C Guidry
On bended knee, I come
With a humble heart, I come
Bowing down before Your holy throne
Lifting holy hands to You
As I pledge my love anew
I worship You in spirit
I worship You in truth
Make my life a holy praise unto You
Yes, Lord
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