With son's daughters: Grace and Faith "
Last night I reread what I'd written about Galations 3 & 4.
We receive the Spirit by believing what we heard (about Jesus Christ crucified) and God works miracles among us because we believe what we heard ... Stop trying and believe.... You should act like you believe instead of like you're trying to convince yourself!
I then went on and read Galations 5 & 6. "Do not use your freedom to indulge the sinful nature, rather serve one another in love. The entire law is summed up in a single command 'Love your neighbor as yourself.' ...live by the Spirit and you will not gratify the sinful nature. ...The acts of the sinful nature are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity, debauchery, idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions, envy, drunkenness, orgies, and the like... those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God."
I'm kind of curious why, if they're obvious, the "acts of the sinful nature" don't seem to be apparent to some Christians. Living by the Spirit should exclude debauchery and drunkenness ... and according to Ephesians there shouldn't even be a hint of sexual immorality or impurity or greed... or even foolish talk! We should live differently...
If we'vebeen truly born again we ARE different, aren't we?
3 comments:
Well, I found it interesting that out of that whole list you chose debauchery, drunkenness, sexual immorality, impurity, greed and foolish talk. What about discord? Factions? Hatred? Jealousy and envy? We can't help but look through our cultural lenses (which is one reason living in another culture is so personally wonderful - tweaks that lens prescription). Western culture focuses on just the things you describe. But in the African church getting angry is worse than polygamy. I've begun to see this as one of the reasons Japan is so "hard" to reach - the way repentance is so often explained as turning away from sin, which it is, but sin also includes everything on that list. And idolatry is on that list. That's their main sin (probably everyone's main sin . . . ). I've started to explain repentance as making a "U-turn" from everything you've known and grown up with, from Shintoism, from Buddhism, to the God of the Bible. That's a starting point as surely as any, and all believers grow into Christlikeness from their starting points. Does this hit at what you were musing about?
Why did I choose those sins? Because I was thinking of students who don't shout and fight very obviously but have a great deal to say about their parties (although usually not to me - I usually find out by other means) and who are often leading a double life sexually which they often do tell me ... but only when in a repentent mood and when the mood passes, well they might talk to me again in a year or two...
Now if I'd been thinking of others I would have chosen different sins. Factions, discord, dissension. Yes, those are just as UGLY ...and often just as rampant. And idolatry... the trouble with staying in a place this long is I'm connected to people in so many ways that I sometimes know what their pastor doesn't.
The u-turn is a good point but the people I was thinking about actually grew up in Christian homes (for the most part) and often behaved themselves until out from under the parental eye.
One interesting thing to look at in most of Paul's letters is how that in the first half of his letters he goes through and explains who you are as a believer and what happened to you at the cross. The second half is not as much a list of do's and don't's but instead a description of how it should be natural to act as a believer (when you're walking in the Spirit). But most believers still function in their old habits, not renewing their mind with the truth of who they are (Roma 12:1-2). So I absolutely agree with your son that most Christians struggle because they truly do not understand the grace that is already theirs.
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