“Therefore, having put away falsehood, let each one of you speak the truth with his neighbor, for we are members one of another. Be angry and do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your anger, and give no opportunity to the devil. Let the thief no longer steal, but rather let him labor, doing honest work with his own hands, so that he may have something to share with anyone in need. Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for building up, as fits the occasion, that it may give grace to those who hear. And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice. Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you.” (Ephesians 4:25-32 ESV)
When Jesus Christ lived on the earth he told the people that if anyone would come after him that he must deny self, take up his cross daily, and follow him. Well, when Jesus took up his cross it was to put our sins to death with him. So when we take up our cross daily, it is to die daily to sin. And then to follow Jesus is to obey him, and to model our lives after him and how he lived. For, in essence, he said that if we hold on to our old lives, we will lose them for eternity, but if we deny self, die daily to sin, and follow him in obedience, then we have eternal life in him (see Luke 9:23-26).
So, faith in Jesus Christ should result in us giving up our old lives of living in sin and for self so that we can now follow him in obedience to his commands. And this is a process of sanctification, but it is not to be regarded lightly nor for us to think that we can just hold on to our sins as long as we want because it is a process. For as soon as we are aware that we are sinning against the Lord, and that we are doing what displeases him, by his grace we are to put those things out of our lives, and we are to replace those bad things with the things of God that he wants in our lives.
So a walk of faith in Jesus Christ is that daily putting off the flesh and putting on God and his righteousness. And it involves us putting off those old sinful habits and replacing them with what is the opposite. So if lying has been our practice, we need to stop lying and we need to make telling the truth our practice. If stealing and cheating have been our practice, we need to stop doing that and now we must be generous and give to others who are in need. If our speech has been filled with hate and evil, we need to now speak the truth in love to others, in kindness, but not lying to them.
And anytime that we choose our sins over God, and we tell God “No!,” while we tell the flesh, “Yes!,” we grieve the Holy Spirit of God. For Jesus died on that cross to deliver us out of our slavery to sin, not just to forgive us our sins, and not so we can keep on sinning without feeling guilty. The whole point of our salvation from sin is to change us, to transform us, to take us from being those who were, living for self and in sin, to those who are now living for God and for his righteousness. So we put off all that is of the flesh and we put on all that is of God and that is of his love (Romans 6:1-23).
And with regard to anger, we get our emotions from God, and he gets angry sometimes, but for the right reasons. So it is possible to be angry without sinning if we are angry over injustice, genocide, adultery, abortions, and all that is evil and is against the Lord and that is harmful to other humans. But we must not let that anger settle into our minds and hearts and then have it turn into bitterness and resentment and a desire to get even with others. We must use the anger, instead, as a springboard to rightful actions and decisions which are helpful to others, and not harmful to them nor to self.
So, just understand that the Christian walk of faith is all about us turning away from our sins to now follow Jesus in obedience to his commands. So we put off all that is of the flesh and that is sinful so that we can put on all that is of God and that is righteous, holy, just, honest, morally pure, upright, faithful, loving, and obedient to our Lord. And daily we deny self and die to sin and we follow our Lord in obedience to his will and to his plan that he has for our lives. For this is what genuine faith in Jesus Christ looks like, which is God’s gift to us, and it is what his grace trains us to do (Titus 2:11-14).
Video Talk
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Mighty in Power
An Original Work / June 17, 2019
Jesus, our Savior, reigneth forever;
Mighty in power, His name we honor.
He’s our refuge from all evil.
God our righteous, He’s our fill.
He satisfies us with all His blessings.
We magnify Him. Our praise to Him sing.
Glory and honor, praise to the Father,
Perfect in wisdom, He is our vision.
He delivered us from all sin
So, in Christ, we’d be forgiven.
He purifies us. His love will guide us.
He is beside us, holy and righteous.
Our Holy Spirit, comfort in sorrow,
Strength in our weakness, hope for tomorrow.
He gives courage to be bold in
Witnessing for Jesus Christ.
He teaches all things about our Savior.
New life in Jesus, we found His favor.
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