It Starts Small

⁵ Mortify therefore your members which are upon the earth; fornication, uncleanness, inordinate affection, evil concupiscence, and covetousness, which is idolatry: Colossians 3:5

I have spent the last few days writing about how Christ is our all. When we give him all, he returns his all to us. TO make Christ our all we must seek his ambitions, set our affection on him, and finally mortify our sin. I love using the Old King James because it has old and barely used words in it. The word mortify means to slay or put death to. It’s only through Christ can we slay sin.

Jesus is our action regulator. He teaches us discipline so we can mortify, put to death sin in our lives. We mortify sin by hating it. To hate sin we need to hate the things God hates.

⁵ Mortify therefore your members which are upon the earth; fornication, uncleanness, inordinate affection, evil concupiscence, and covetousness, which is idolatry: ⁸ But now ye also put off all these; anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, filthy communication out of your mouth. Colossians 3:5,8

That is a pretty extensive list! I like to use the King James version because I like the old “words.” We tend to slang up english and sometimes the other translations are not as clear.

Inordinate Affection: Unhealthy and obsessive attachment to a person or thing that manifests through uncontrollable “love”.  It is an excessive, unnatural without limitation type of love. (Exodus 20:3, 1 Corinthians 8:6,)
Evil Concupiscence: every kind of wrong desire. A passion for the wrong, sinful things. We can sum it up as any sort of lust. It is not always sexual but can also be material things.

God’s word goes further and tells us what God hates:

¹⁶ These six things doth the Lord hate: yea, seven are an abomination unto him: ¹⁷ A proud look, a lying tongue, and hands that shed innocent blood, ¹⁸ An heart that deviseth wicked imaginations, feet that be swift in running to mischief, ¹⁹ A false witness that speaketh lies, and he that soweth discord among brethren. Proverbs 6:16-19

The root to all destruction of ourselves is in sin. A heart that is full of these things. They bring death to ourselves, our relationship with our Heavenly Father and our relationship with others. It is no wonder why God hates sin.

¹⁰⁴ Through thy precepts I get understanding: therefore I hate every false way. Psalm 119:104

This verse is one that I keep written on my heart. It’s through Jesus and the Holy Spirit that God’s precepts are revealed. We truly need to wrap our hearts around what sin does to us! Where it leads and how it destroys. We need to build a a respect and reverence for God’s commands and precepts to hate sin.

When Christ is all in our lives, he changes our ambition, our attention and slays sin out lives. Choosing Christ daily transforms our hearts from a junkyard to a garden. There’s no other way except through him.

What sin are you struggling with in your life? Take time today to lay it down on the alter and seek Jesus’ help. He’s always here with us to help us and he wants to help us to overcome our weaknesses and make them our strengths!