“Put to death, therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly nature: sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires and greed, which is idolatry.”
Last Sunday we were reminded that our Christian journey is comparable to running a race. It calls for much self-discipline and commitment. And yet those are two words that hardly survive in our modern vocabulary. Discipline is almost a dirty word that many people would rather not talk about unless they are referring to children. Commitment is almost an alien word in our world today where everyone seems to be concerned about their own interests.
The gospel is however counter-cultural. As we learnt last Sunday, the gospel calls us to live differently to the culture around us in order to stand out and win others to Christ. It also calls us to identify with the culture – being all things to all people, in order to win others for Christ.
But the overriding message is one of ‘beating our bodies into subjection’. It is a call to kill sin and it is a call to every believer in Christ. In our journey of sanctification, we will need to know and indeed fight the three enemies of every Christian – the flesh, the world and the devil. The most insidious of these however is the flesh and we need to be aware of that. An old theologian called John Owen paraphrased those words of Paul in Romans 8: 12 as: Be killing sin or it will be killing you.
But how do we go about killing sin? Paul tells us exactly how in Colossians 3: 1 – 17
- Setting our hearts and minds on things above. V1
- Living in light of the coming judgement V6
- Putting off worldly practices v8 -9
- Putting on the new self v10
- Bearing fruit of the new self v11-14
- Letting the peace of Christ reign in your heart. V 15.
- Being grateful v16, 17
- Letting the word dwell richly in you. V16
- Singing psalms, hymns and spiritual songs v16
- Acting in the name of the Lord. V17.
Go on and fight sin in your life.
I Was Just Wondering 