“Love does no wrong to a neighbor; therefore love is the fulfilling of the law. Besides this you know the time, that the hour has come for you to wake from sleep. For salvation is nearer to us now than when we first believed. The night is far gone; the day is at hand. So then let us cast off the works of darkness and put on the armor of light. Let us walk properly as in the daytime, not in orgies and drunkenness, not in sexual immorality and sensuality, not in quarreling and jealousy. But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to gratify its desires.” (Romans 13:10-14 ESV)
If we love God, and if we love our fellow humans, we are not
going to sin against them deliberately and habitually, and especially not
premeditatedly. We will not willfully do what we know is wrong and that we know
is going to hurt other humans and that will hinder our walks of fellowship with
God. For to love with this kind of love is to prefer what God prefers, which is
what is holy, righteous, godly, morally pure, upright, honest, faithful, and
obedient to our Lord, which we obey in his power, strength, and wisdom, by his
grace.
We are also not going to be self-absorbed, only thinking
about ourselves and what we want, without regard or concern for what God wants
for our lives, and without regard for what needs the Lord wants us to meet in
other people’s lives, and in what ways. And this includes we will not display
total lack of concern with regard to the signs of the times in which we live and
of the critical need and requirement of God that we should live holy lives,
pleasing to him, and that we should be sharing the truth of the gospel.
For when this says here that our salvation is nearer to us
now than when we first believed, it is letting us know that our salvation is
not just something that takes place in the past, and that’s it. For we are saved
(past), we are being saved (present active), and we will be saved (future) when
Christ returns for his faithful ones, but provided that we are those who are
walking according to the Spirit, and not according to the flesh, and in
obedience to our Lord, and not in sin. For if sin is what we obey, it leads to
death.
Therefore, we need to be those who are
making it our practice to cast off the works of darkness (sin, wickedness) and
to put on the armor of light (truth, righteousness, the gospel, Jesus Christ).
For like Jesus said, if we are going to come after him we must deny self, take
up our cross daily (die daily to sin) and follow (obey) him. For if we hold on
to our lives of sin, we will lose them for eternity. But if for Jesus’ sake we
give up our lives of sin to follow him in obedience, then we have eternal life
with God (Luke 9:23-26).
And then we must walk (in conduct, in
practice) according to the Spirit of God and no longer according to the flesh,
and in walks of holiness and in obedience to our Lord, and no longer in
deliberate and habitual sin. And this is why we must die with Christ to sin,
not just once, but daily, and it is why things such as sexual immorality, sensuality,
adultery, murder, stealing, cheating, lying, orgies, drunkenness, and the like,
should not have any part in our lives. But we are to put on Christ and make no
provision for the flesh.
For, if we make sin our practice, i.e.
if sin is what we obey, and not obedience to God, and not righteousness and not
holy living, then, according to the Scriptures, we will not inherit eternal
life with God. In fact, we do not know God, we are not born of God, we are not
in fellowship with Christ, we don’t have salvation from sin, and we will not
enter into the kingdom of heaven, for we are of the devil if sin is what we
practice and not obedience to our Lord. So we must continue in Christ steadfast
to the very end.
[Matt 7:21-23; Matt 24:9-14; Lu
9:23-26; Jn 6:35-58; Jn 15:1-11; 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 1:18; 1 Co 6:9-10,19-20; 1 Co 10:1-22; 1
Co 15:1-2; 2 Co 5:10,15,21; 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; 2 Tim 1:8-9; 1 Pet 1:5; 1 Pet 2:24; Tit
2:11-14; 1 Jn 1:5-10; 1 Jn 2:3-6,24-25; 1 Jn 3:4-10; Heb 3:1-19; Heb 4:1-13; Heb
9:28; 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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