Stop It!

In my Bible reading this week, I was accosted by two words Paul wrote to the Corinthians: “stop sinning” (1 Cor. 15:34). Most believers would think this kind of hard edict is unhelpful until you remember that it is direct revelation from God to Paul to His church, and the Scripture is chock-full of many reasons why this needs to be shouted from the housetops.

So, why should you and I make every effort to “stop sinning”? Simply because God knows what is best for us, so He warns us about the power and consequences of unconfessed and unrepentant sin in a believer’s life. The truth is we have been enabled to obey this command, but we will struggle to do so in our unredeemed bodies until God calls us or takes us home to glory.

Here are just a few reasons to "stop sinning." Let the pain of them sink in as you seek to honor the Lord by the power of the Holy Spirit.

• Sin disqualifies your service to God (1 Cor. 9:27).

• Sin robs you of your joy in the Lord (Psalm 51:12).

• Sin disgraces your reputation (2 Samuel 12:14).

• Sin messes up your fellowship (Matthew 18:15–18).

• Sin unleashes God's loving discipline (Heb. 12:5–12, 1 Cor. 5:5).

• Sin drains your spiritual vitality (1 Pet. 2:11).

• Sin quenches the Holy Spirit’s work in your life (Eph. 4:30–32, 1 Thess. 5:19).

• Sin deprives you of your rewards (2 John 8).

• Sin defiles your holiness (2 Cor. 7:1).

• Sin hinders your spiritual progress (Heb. 12:1).

• Sin pollutes your church family (1 Cor. 5:6–7).

• Sin can reveal a fatal deception (1 John 1:6, 8, 10).

• Sin increases the heaviness of your guilt (Ps. 32:4).

• Sin obstructs answered prayer (Isa. 66:18).

• Sin causes others to stumble (Rom. 14:13, Mark 9:42–48).

• Sin invites unwanted confrontation and shame (2 Thess. 3:14).

• Sin messes up your worship (Matt. 5:23–24).

• Sin can cause physical problems (Ps. 32:3, 1 Jn. 5:16, 1 Cor. 11:23–27).

How can we “stop sinning”?

1. Live with the awareness that you are dead to sin: “knowing this, that our old self was crucified with Him, in order that our body of sin might be done away with, so that we would no longer be slaves to sin” (Rom. 6:6, read also v. 1–5, 7–10).

2. Live with the accounting that your death to sin is true and you believe it : “Even so consider yourselves to be dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus.” (Rom. 6:11).

3. Live with the appropriation that you will “not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its lusts” (Rom. 6:12, read also v. 13–14). This involves an active dedication to killing sin (“So then, brethren, we are under obligation, not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh— for if you are living according to the flesh, you must die; but if by the Spirit you are putting to death the deeds of the body, you will live” Rom. 8:12–13).

Remember, sin will take you farther than you want to go, keep you longer than you want to stay, and cost you more than you want to pay!
 
Pastor Jeff

“ We may never know the treacherous journey people have taken to land in the pew next to us.”

— Rosaria Butterfield (former lesbian & tenured professor of English & women’s studies at Syracuse University, pastor’s wife, mother, grandmother, author, speaker)