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The choice really is yours!  Whatever we do, we ought to realize that you become the slave of whoever you choose to obey? You can be a slave to sin, which leads to death, or you can choose to obey God, which leads to righteous living.  (Rom 6:16-17  NLT).

Last week, we examined the sin of sexual immorality as one of the works of the flesh, which every believer must mortify.  In this post, we will look at the sins of impurity, sensuality and idolatry.  Let us quote the Scripture in Galatians 5 again, where all the works of the flesh are outlined.

Now the works of the flesh are evident: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. Gal 5:19-22 ESV

Impurity

Some versions of Scripture in this text refer to impurity as uncleanliness.  Webster’s online dictionary defines Impurity as:

(1) the condition or quality of being impure in any sense: defilement; foulness; adulteration.

(2)That which is, or which renders anything impure; foul matter, action, language, etc.; a foreign ingredient.

The Cambridge English dictionary also defines impurity as sexual thoughts or behaviour that are wrong or not moral.

Our Lord Jesus Christ, in explaining to His disciples, what uncleanliness or impurity is, had this to say:

But those things which proceed out of the mouth come from the heart, and they defile a man.  For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies.  These are the things which defile a man, … Matt 15:18-20  NKJV

Juxtaposing the dictionary definitions of Impurity and what the Scripture says about this subject, I define impurity as the state of being defiled emotionally, morally and spiritually through any of your five senses: eyes, taste, touch, sight and hearing.

No doubt in our present day and age, one is bombarded everywhere with content that defiles the recipient in one way or the other; talk about what we see on the billboards, TVs, adverts that pop up when you are watching something decent on the internet.  The lyrics of popular music, the stagecraft of artistes, the list is endless.

Impurity therefore, to a large extent has to do with a distortion of one of God’s most valuable gifts to mankind: love.  When love is demeaned and equated to open vulgarity such as we see on our screens and sometimes in pubs and such places; that can be described as impurity.  Such vulgarity can be in dance, language and open display of sexual advances.  God’s love is pure (1 Cor 13) and the sexual love between a man and a woman is meant to be expressed in the context of marriage. (Eph 5).  Sad to say, impurity and not purity, seems to be the thing of the now in recent times.

It is important for the believer to be purposeful in his or her choices:  which company of people to associate with, where to go and even which internet material and sites to visit; among others.

This is because the battle ground of our new life in Christ with our old nature, is mainly our minds, thoughts and heart.  Whatever we listen to, watch, ponder over in our minds and heart, affects what we tend to touch, say and how we react. So when we watch pornography and fantasize about people, our thoughts run wild, and this is impurity.  Jesus makes this clear in the Matthew 15 Scripture earlier quoted, that what comes out of a person’s mouth is as a result of the condition of his heart (mind) and that is what defiles that person and makes him or her impure.

Watching pornography for example can lead a person into masturbation, fornication or even adultery.

But I say to you that whoever looks at a woman to lust for her has already committed adultery with her in his heart.  Matt 5:28-29 NKJV

Similarly, listening to wrong suggestions and counsel may also lead a person to utter defamatory, insulting words or even poniards to another.  Here again, while the Holy Spirit will prompt us to forgive an offender, our sinful nature will on the other hand often push us to say or do something harmful to the person who would have wronged us.  The choice once again is ours. We decide whose voice we will obey.

You can be a slave to sin, which leads to death, or you can choose to obey God, which leads to righteous living

That is why the Scripture urges us not to be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of our mind (Romans 12:1-2); and also urges us to also to pull down every thought that opposes the will of God for our lives.

For though we walk in the flesh, we are not waging war according to the flesh. ……  We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ,… 2 Cor 10:3-5 ESV

Impurity is dangerous because you cannot be sure where it will lead you to; and it can also end up as an addiction.

One of the ways to overcome impurity is to memorize Scripture.  There is power in God’s word to overcome impure thoughts; and as we fill our minds with the Word and confess it, the enemy is defeated, and we are able to submit our thoughts and hearts to Christ.  Let this Scripture be our guide to help us triumph over this sin of impurity:

Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.  Phillp 4:8-9 ESV

Sensuality / lewdness

Sensuality, referred to as lewdness in some versions of the Bible, is also a sexual sin.  The Cambridge English dictionary defines sensuality as the expression or suggestion of physical, especially sexual pleasure or satisfaction.  It can also be explained as being sexual in an indecent or lustful way; public sexual acts.  A lot has been said on sexual immorality in our previous post and this can be applied to the sin of lewdness. (Series 3)

Idolatry

The Merriam Webster English dictionary defines idols as (1) an object of extreme devotion, (2) a representation or symbol of an object of worship.

Idols are not only graven images. Our Lord Jesus Christ even referred to money as an idol.

No one can serve two masters. For you will hate one and love the other; you will be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money. Matt 6:24 NLT

For the love of money is the first step toward all kinds of sin. Some people have even turned away from God because of their love for it, and have as a result, pierced themselves with many sorrows. (1 Tim 6:10)

Anything we put ahead of God in our lives is an idol and God hates it. (Exod 20:4-5)  Your idol can therefore be your phone, your money and even your spouse among others.  Scripture says:

Those who cling to worthless idols forfeit the grace that could be theirs.  Jonah 2:8

The new believer must understand that these sins are overcome progressively and not overnight. The more we surrender to the Holy Spirit’s promptings and to His direction through God’s Word, the more control over our lives that He has, and the easier it is to overcome more and more sins as the days go by.  So when the Apostle John says “he that is born of God does not sin” it simply means the born again believer does not make a practice of sinning because that person has surrendered his or her will to God and sin no more has dominion over him!  I pray that this will be the testimony of every reader of this post.

Stay connected, for a continuation of this weekly teaching!

God bless you!!!

The post Our New Life In Christ (Series – 4) appeared first on Fragrance of Love.

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.
2 Cor 5:17 NKJV 

We also learnt that we do not earn salvation. Salvation is God’s gift to us. (Eph 2:8-9). So like any gift we value and cherish, we need to maintain it. This is particularly important since our physical bodies do not die immediately our spirits are born again. More often than not, we continue to live on this earth for a long while, even after we give our lives to Christ. So the Apostle Paul asks: 

What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? Certainly not!
Rom 6:1-2 NKJV 

We definitely cannot continue to live in sin. We are born again and like any new born baby, we need to grow in this new life. A new born baby grows by the day; and the child that continually fails to grow, ultimately dies. So the Scripture says this to us: 

For if you live according to the flesh you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live.
Romans 8:13 NKJV 

This death mentioned here is certainly not a death of the physical body, but the spirit man. In this same Scripture, we learn that the spirit man grows, as we continually mortify the desires of the flesh! 

So as new believers, we are expected to walk in “newness of life” and our lives must begin to align with God’s will and purpose for our lives. (Rom 6:4) This does not all happen in one day! No. The entire Christian journey here on earth has to do with subduing the desires of the flesh and yielding to the will and purposes of God for your life. It is a progression, and it’s expected to get better with each passing day. 

You and I definitely cannot achieve this in our own strength; so God has empowered us to do so, through the baptism of His Holy Spirit! When you are baptised in the Holy Spirit, an overflowing dimension of His presence comes upon your life and empowers you to yield the members of your body to God. 

The Spirit of God now in you is continually at war with your sinful nature – your old man. So for every situation you face in life, you have to choose an action that will either gratify the desires of your flesh or gratify the desires of the Spirit of God in you. Therein is the continual struggle in our walk of faith. What your old nature desires, is contrary to what the Spirit of God now in you, prompts you to do. Let’s see the Scripture below: 

For the flesh DESIRES what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the flesh. They are in conflict with each other, so that you are not to do whatever you want.
Galatians 5:17 NIV (Emphasis mine) 

So probably typically, in the past, if someone hurt you deeply, your immediate reaction would be to seek an avenue to take revenge; but not so now. The Spirit of God in you will dissuade you from doing so, and probably remind you of God’s word regarding such reactions. The decision would now lie with you, whether to react like you would before you came to know the Lord, or heed to the promptings of the Holy Spirit and let sleeping dogs lie, praying rather to God to help you forgive that person. 

The choice really is yours! Whatever we do, we ought to realize that we become the slave of whoever we choose to obey? You can be a slave to sin, which leads to death, or you can choose to obey God, which leads to righteous living. The Living Bible puts it this way: 

Don’t you realize that you can choose your own master? ….. The one to whom you offer yourself-he will take you and be your master, and you will be his slave.
Rom 6:16-17 The Living Bible 

So what are these desires of the flesh that the Scriptures urge us to mortify? Galatians chapter 5 outlines the various aspects of our sinful nature. We will begin with examining the sin of sexual immorality in today’s post. 

Now the works of the flesh are evident: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.
Gal 5:19-22 ESV 

Sexual Immorality 

Some versions of Scripture in this text, refer to sexual immorality, as adultery and fornication. Indeed both adultery and fornication can be classified as sexual immorality. While adultery, is having sex with a married person who is not your spouse, fornication has to do with a sexual act between two consenting people who are unmarried. 

It is sad today, to see sexual immorality downplayed even among believers. The world says it’s ok to have sex with one another, so long as they are two consenting adults; but God says the act of sex is reserved for the institution of marriage; marriage between a male and a female. (Gen 2:15-24) Whose voice will you obey? 

Maybe you found nothing wrong with having sex with a friend or a married person before you became born again. However, once you give your life to Christ, the Holy Spirit who now resides in you, will prod you any time you are tempted to succumb to that lifestyle. The more you yield to Him, the more control He has over your life and the more you are transformed to become like Christ. However, if you continually ignore His proddings, the less control He has of your life and the more control your sinful nature has over your life. Your continual disobedience to the Holy Spirit grieves Him. (Eph 4:30) 

Remember, you choose your master – whether sin leading to death, or God, leading to righteous living. (Rom 6) 

We are however urged to put to death what is earthly in us: sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry; (Col 3:5-11) and not be consumed with matters of sexual immorality. So the apostle Paul puts it this way: 

But fornication and all uncleanness or covetousness, let it not even be named among you, as is fitting for saints;
Eph 5:3-4 NKJV 

When we become born again and God’s Holy Spirit comes upon us, our bodies become the containers of His presence and we need to be conscious of that as we live here on earth. 

God in His own wisdom, knowing that it will be difficult for man and woman to resist the sin of sexual immorality, since it is mostly an act between two consenting people, says to us to FLEE sexual immorality! I define flee as to move your body away quickly from a scene or situation. You cannot resist sexual immorality, you flee, as this Scripture states: 

Flee sexual immorality. Every sin that a man does is outside the body, but he who commits sexual immorality sins against his own body. Or do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own? For you were bought at a price; therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God’s.
1 Cor 6:18-20 NKJV 

When we live in consciousness of the fact that we live our lives to please God, we will by the power of the Holy Spirit, desist from such acts if we were engaged in them before we came to know the Lord. For as the Scripture says: 

This is the will of God, your sanctification: that you should abstain from sexual immorality; that each of you should know how to possess his own vessel in sanctification and honor, not in passion of lust, like the Gentiles who do not know God;
1 Thess 4:3-4NKJV 

We need to remember that, in as much as it may not be possible to overcome these sins overnight, we can overcome them progressively. The more we yield to the Holy Spirit’s promptings, the more control He has over our lives and vice versa. This continues until we get to the point in our lives when “we are led by the Holy Spirit” in almost all our dealings. At this point, we do not make a practice of sinning. 

I pray that we will yield more and more to the promptings of the Holy Spirit in us so that we can grow in our new life in Christ. This is possible when we study His Word and stay connected to Him in prayer. 

Stay connected for a continuation of this weekly teaching. 

God bless you!

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