Catching the Fire

Romans 13:12-14, "12The night is nearly over; the day is almost here. So let us put aside the deeds of darkness and put on the armor of light. 13Let us behave decently, as in the daytime, not in orgies and drunkenness, not in sexual immorality and debauchery, not in dissension and jealousy. 14Rather, clothe yourselves with the Lord Jesus Christ, and do not think about how to gratify the desires of the sinful nature."

1 Corinthians 5:11, "But now I am writing you that you must not associate with anyone who calls himself a brother but is sexually immoral or greedy, an idolater or a slanderer, a drunkard or a swindler. With such a man do not even eat."

Galatians 5:19-21, "19The acts of the sinful nature are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; 20idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions 21and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God."

What do these verses mean to you when you read them? Look them up and read them in context to make sure, but in the end we have to deal with them as believers, especially as Christians.

Being in India and teaching Apologetics again has caused me to catch a fire that I have not had in a while, or at least it has not burned as hot as I would have liked. Not only have I been able to teach the Word of God and how to defend it, but I have been impacted by the believers here and my own teaching in how we are to handle sin in the lives of believers.

When we read the verses above, it seems to me we have missed the mark in American churches. We do not really hold each other accountable anymore, because it would be offensive or a friendship might be lost because of it. We make excuses to keep “Christians” around who are acting out as in the verses above. Why? Why not do what the Word of God tells us and rid ourselves of them and hopefully this will bring them to repentance and restoration? Why do we rationalize sins in our brothers and sisters lives? Is it because we are guilty of the same things? Is it because we are afraid of confrontation? Is it because we are people pleasers instead of God pleasers? To keep membership up? To keep their tithe? To make other members happy? Why?

The Word tells us plainly not to put up with certain sins within the church, and yet go into just about any church and I bet you will find these very people there. And we wonder why we are having so many problems with doctrine in the church today. I say this: That I will be striving to maintain a much better Biblical standard over any ministry under my control from this point onward. I would much rather offend and make man mad at me then stand before God and give an account why I allowed people who call themselves Christians to continue within the body of believers when they were so apparent in their sinful behavior. What would you say? Well God, you see we needed the money. It would have caused too much division and so-and-so would have been upset as well, and they have a lot of power. Well God, I did not want to ruffle feathers and it did not seem to be hurting anyone; I mean no one else knew, well except You.

Where are you? Are you struggling with any decisions? The only question you have to ask yourself is this: If I stand before God today would I be able to say that I fought the good fight and finished the race as Paul did.

2 Timothy 4:7-8, “I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. Finally, there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will give to me on that Day, and not to me only but also to all who have loved His appearing.