“No one after lighting a lamp puts it in a cellar or under a basket, but on a stand, so that those who enter may see the light. Your eye is the lamp of your body. When your eye is healthy, your whole body is full of light, but when it is bad, your body is full of darkness. Therefore be careful lest the light in you be darkness. If then your whole body is full of light, having no part dark, it will be wholly bright, as when a lamp with its rays gives you light.” (Luke 11:33-36 ESV)
If our faith in Jesus Christ is genuine God-persuaded and God-gifted faith, then we have been crucified with Christ in death to sin, and we have been raised with Christ to walk in newness of life in him, no longer to live as slaves to sin but now as slaves to God and to his righteousness. Therefore we are not to let sin reign in our mortal bodies to make us obey its desires, for if sin is what we obey, it leads to death. But if obedience to our Lord is what we obey, it leads to sanctification, and its end is eternal life with God.
Therefore, if our faith in Jesus Christ is genuine faith, we will not continue in deliberate and habitual sin against our Lord, but we will daily (in practice) be those who are denying self and dying to sin and following our Lord in obedience to his commands. And this is not saying that we will be absolutely perfect from this moment forward, for the Christian life and practice is a life-long process of sanctification. But we should no longer be those who are walking (in conduct, in practice) in sin and not in obedience to our Lord.
[Romans 6:1-23; Luke 9:23-26; Romans 8:1-14; Titus 2:11-14]
Also, if we are of genuine faith in our Lord Jesus our lifestyles and habits and attitudes and behaviors should be progressing away from our old lives to us daily becoming more like Jesus in heart, mind, will, and character. And we should be growing to maturity in our walks of faith and in obedience to our Lord and to his commands, and it should be evident that our lives have changed and that we are not the same as we were before. And we should be giving testimony to what Jesus is doing in our lives to make us like him.
So, we should not be those who are hiding our faith from other people or who are hiding the truth of gospel so that other humans will not reject us. But we should be sharing our testimonies, and we should be sharing the truth of the gospel with our friends, family, neighbors, and strangers, so that they can come to know Jesus, too. For if we truly love Jesus, and if our lives are given over to him to now do his will for our lives, it should be evident, not only in our actions, but in the words that we share with others, too.
Yet, sadly, there are many professers of faith in Jesus Christ who are convinced that all their sins are forgiven and that heaven is guaranteed them when they die, who have not genuinely died with Christ to sin, and so they have not been raised with him to walk in newness of life in him. For they have continued in deliberate and habitual sin, and they are choosing sin and their idols over walks of obedience to the Lord in holy living. So the “light” that they claim is within them is really darkness, and not the true Light.
For our eyes are symbolic of our discernment or judgment in particular matters of choice and decision making. So if our eye is bad (not healthy), we make bad choices, bad judgments, and bad decisions about what is right and what is wrong. And we end up choosing evil instead of good, and so our whole body is full of darkness, and “the light” we might think is within us is really darkness (sin, wickedness, evil). And many people are walking still in the darkness but they deceive themselves that they are really in the light.
And they end up going from bad to worse, for evil produces more evil, and since evil does not ever satisfy, many who are living in such evil will keep going to the next level and then to the next in order to try to gratify the sinful cravings of their flesh, to the point of no return for some. And some who are on this course end up in prison because they went too far and they got caught in their sinful addictions, while others seem to never have any actions taken against them, and so they keep on in their sinful course.
But whether or not they are judged in this life for their sinful actions, they will face the judgment of God. And it won’t matter to God if they professed Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. For Jesus said that not everyone who calls him “Lord” will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one DOING (obeying) the will of God the Father. So many will stand before the Lord claiming him as Lord and what they did in his name, and he will tell them plainly that he never knew them, and that they are to depart from him, for they would not choose him, but they chose their sins, instead (Matthew 7:21-23).
[Matt 7:21-23; Lu 9:23-26; John 1:12-13; John 6:44; John 10:27-30; Acts 26:18; Rom 2:6-8; Rom 6:1-23; Rom 8:1-14; Rom 12:1-2; 1 Co 6:9-10,19-20; 1 Co 10:1-22; 2 Co 5:10,15,21; Gal 5:16-24; Gal 6:7-8; Eph 2:8-10; Eph 4:17-32; Eph 5:3-6; Col 1:21-23; Col 3:1-17; Titus 2:11-14; 1 Jn 1:5-10; 1 Jn 2:3-6,24-25; 1 Jn 3:4-10; 1 Peter 1:15; 1 Pet 2:24; Heb 3:1-19; Heb 4:1-13; Heb 10:23-31; Heb 12:1-2; Rev 21:8,27; Rev 22:14-15]
Only in Him
An Original Work / February 19, 2014
Based off Isaiah 30
Woe to those who look to man’s help;
Who turn away from Jesus Christ;
Forming an alliance not in step with God;
Making their own plans, and praying not.
Willing not to listen to truth,
They close their ears to what is right.
Pleasing words are all that they’ll hear;
Feel good messages that bring cheer.
Trust in your Lord; turn from your sin.
Put your faith now ONLY IN HIM.
Do not turn to idols. They’ll not satisfy.
Jesus will save you. That’s why He died.
Your Lord will be gracious to you.
He cares all about you, ‘tis true.
He forgives you all of your sin
When you give your life up to Him.
Oh, how truly gracious He’ll be
When you bow to Him on your knees;
Turning now from your sin; walking in his ways.
He’ll lead and guide you all of your days.
Now you will sing praises to Him.
He delivered you from your sin.
You’ll tell others now of His grace,
So they may see Christ face-to-face.
https://vimeo.com/87181019
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