“Keep hold of instruction; do not let go;
guard her, for she is your life.
Do not enter the path of the wicked,
and do not walk in the way of the evil.
Avoid it; do not go on it;
turn away from it and pass on.
For they cannot sleep unless they have done wrong;
they are robbed of sleep unless they have made someone stumble.
For they eat the bread of wickedness
and drink the wine of violence.
But the path of the righteous is like the light of dawn,
which shines brighter and brighter until full day.
The way of the wicked is like deep darkness;
they do not know over what they stumble.” (Proverbs 4:13-19 ESV)
A lot of what is taught to us in the Old Testament is repeated for us in the New Testament, so we can certainly learn from both the Old and the New Testaments with regard to how we should live our lives as followers of Christ, and with regard to how we should NOT conduct our lives, in practice. For God’s moral laws never changed. Sin is still sin. For we are still not to lie, cheat, steal, commit adultery, murder, hate, and bear false witness, etc.
So we would do well to listen to these words of wisdom and to heed their warnings to us so that we don’t end up going in the wrong direction away from God, and away from his divine will and purpose for our lives. For as followers of Christ we are not to enter the path of the wicked. And how might we enter that path? It could be as simple as allowing ourselves to be entertained by what is contrary to God’s commandments.
For so much of what is called “entertainment” today is full of lust, greed, sexual immorality, idolatry, adultery, lying, cheating, stealing, murdering, hating, and mocking those different from us, etc. So much of it approves what God disapproves, and encourages us to make compromises with our faith and practice in order to be liked by other humans and to “fit in.” So much of it mocks God and his word, too, and that is horrible!
So, we must be people of God who are discerning, and who exercise biblical wisdom, and who avoid what is contrary to God’s will and what he calls evil and sin, refusing not only to participate in it but also to be entertained by it. For what we willingly take into our eyes and ears and minds goes into our hearts, and from out of our hearts will come what we are taking in on a consistent basis. So we should be those who practice much discretion.
For the more we consume the attitudes, actions, behaviors, thinking, and philosophies of this sinful world, the more we will become like the world in all those areas, too. But when we choose to not consume those types of things, and instead we are those who are feeding on the word of the Lord and on his teachings and his counsel, the less like the world we will become, and the more we will become like Jesus in his thinking and character.
For the truly wicked, which includes many professers of faith in Jesus Christ, too, are those who make sinning against the Lord their practice. So many of them do so without conscience, too, and without compassion for those they regularly sin against. For they are living in slavery to sin and not in slavery to God and to his righteousness. Evil is what they eat and drink and breathe in and out, for it consumes them, even if they know the right way to go.
“Put away from you crooked speech,
and put devious talk far from you.
Let your eyes look directly forward,
and your gaze be straight before you.
Ponder the path of your feet;
then all your ways will be sure.
Do not swerve to the right or to the left;
turn your foot away from evil.” (Proverbs 4:24-27 ESV)
We are not to be like the wicked. Evil should never describe the life of a true follower of Jesus Christ. And “follower” goes hand-in-hand with “belief.” For the kind of faith which saves comes from God, is gifted to us by God, and is persuaded of God and is not of our own doing, not of the will nor of the flesh of mankind. And God persuades us to leave our lives of sin behind us, to die to sin, and to now walk in holiness and in obedience to his commands.
[Hebrews 12:1-2; John 1:12-13; John 6:44; Ephesians 2:8-10; Romans 6:1-23; Luke 9:23-26]
So, we are not to follow the popular teachings of today, so many of which give the “believer” permission to keep on in his deliberate and habitual sin while claiming Jesus as his Savior and heaven as his eternal destiny. But if we do not turn away from evil, and if we do not turn to the Lord, in truth, to now follow him in obedience to his commands (New Covenant) then it doesn’t matter what our lips profess. We will not have eternal life with God.
[Matt 7:21-23; Matt 24:9-14; Lu 9:23-26; Rom 1:18-32; Rom 2:6-8; Rom 6:1-23; Rom 8:1-14,24; Rom 12:1-2; Rom 13:11; 1 Co 6:9-10,19-20; 2 Co 5:10,15,21; 1 Co 1:18; 1 Co 15:1-2; 2 Tim 1:8-9; Heb 9:28; 1 Pet 1:5; Gal 5:16-21; Gal 6:7-8; Eph 2:8-10; Eph 4:17-32; Eph 5:3-6; Col 1:21-23; Col 3:5-17; 1 Pet 2:24; Tit 2:11-14; 1 Jn 1:5-9; 1 Jn 2:3-6,24-25; 1 Jn 3:4-10; Heb 3:6,14-15; Heb 10:23-31; Heb 12:1-2; Rev 21:8,27; Rev 22:14-15]
Walk With Me
By Al Langdon and P.J. Zondervan
Walk with me, walk with me,
Lest mine eyes no longer see
All the glory, all the story of Your love;
Talk to me, talk to me,
Like You spoke so tenderly,
When You talked there,
When You walked there by the sea.
Talk to me, talk to me,
Lest mine ears no longer hear
All the wonder, all the beauty of Your grace;
Walk with me, walk with me,
As You walked so lovingly,
When You walked there,
When You talked there by the sea.
Let me follow in the footsteps
That trod the shore of Galilee,
Let me learn to pray like He did
In the Garden of Gethsemane;
Take my hand, take my hand,
Teach me Lord to understand,
All the duty, all the beauty of Your love.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=no8_yctK-Zg
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