Sin vs. Love
We are set free, in order to serve.
The Bible plainly shows in Matthew 25, what Christ will ask when He returns.
He doesn’t ask, “Did you watch porn?”
He doesn’t ask “Did you have sex before marriage, or did you have an abortion”
He doesn’t ask “Did you vote right, or did you go to church or did you obey leaders and pay what you owe?”
Nope.
He asks if you visited prisoners? Did you help the poor? Did you clothe the naked? Did you give a cool drink to the thirsty? Did you love your neighbor? Did you love at all? Did you show kindness and compassion? Did you reconcile people to God? Did you use your gifts to save souls, spread the Kingdom and help others?
I can hear you squirming in your seat dying to say…”yeah…but”
No.
Jesus died for our sins and rose for our justification. If you are saved then you are in Him and are dead to sins. It is not held against you. Do the dead sin? No. Paul explains this in Romans.
That means that you have power over it. But, it also means that it is irrelevant to your eternity. You are washed. You are hid in Christ. Our focus is serving God and growing the Kingdom. Not, in worrying about whether we look like good Christians, but by being good Christians through service. (Col. 3:1-3)
You confess your sins and God forgives you, and works to help you overcome. This is foot washing. God cleanses us of all sin when we confess Him as Lord. But, we get dirty as we walk in this world. Like Jesus said, we have no need but to wash our feet. We do this by confessing our sins to Him. Likewise, when we confess our sins to each other and pray for each other, we wash each others feet. As James said. (1 John 1:1-10, John 13: 4-15, James 5:16, Rom. 10:9-10)
We are saved, and washed and hid in Christ. Our sins are gone. They are washed away. We are white as snow.
But, the things we do can open doors to the enemy to destroy us and ruin our lives. We can let demonic forces have more access to our lives. Even though we are eternally saved and forgiven. Our life in this world can be miserable because we do not confess our sins and let God work in our lives. Those sins can grow until they destroy us, if we do not let God deal with them. They can become strongholds of demonic activity in our lives. Things that can impact those around us and generations down the road.
But remember, all things work together for our good. God can use that destruction or trouble to help us. God will use it to grow us. He is not trying to hurt us but give a hope and a future. We are saved. We are in Christ, if you know Him. He chastises those He loves. The destruction or rock bottom, works to wake us up and set us free. (Romans 8: 28, Jere 29:11, Heb. 12:6)
And we still are saved forever.
God deals with our sin so we can serve the Kingdom. Knowing God and serving Him is our purpose. That’s our focus. Not our life, but His.
We are being sanctified, and through the sanctification, we endure hardness as we serve. We endure temptation and overcome through the Holy Spirit and service to the Kingdom. (2 Tim. 2:3, James 1:12)
Our willingness to have a relationship with Christ and let the Holy Spirit, love through us is what we are called to do. (Eph 2:8-10)
Our service and our love is a reflection of our relationship with God.
When you read Matthew 25. It’s obvious that the people thought they were saved. But, they never knew the King, so they never did the compassionate loving things God desired. They never grew in faith as the Lord worked in them and on them. They never had a relationship with Him. They thought their works saved them, instead of being saved to do good works. They worried about sin, like pharisees, even though they were dead to sin. Satan will get us focused on quitting sinning and being moral, because that keeps us from getting people saved, or fighting the evil in this world. (Eph 2:8-10, Matt. 7:21-23)
It’s not about works. It’s about who you know and who you have a relationship with. And that relationship will get us to serve Him, as He sanctifies us.
Let God take care of your sins. Focus on serving and loving others. Focus on the relationship with God.
And you will find that those sins you worry about, get less and less. We grow. We build faith. We build our relationship with God. We overcome the sin that so easily besets us. By following the Holy Spirit and doing the service God calls us to do. Not by works, but by His power.
Love covers a multitude of sins. God is love, and He works to drive those things out of us through Love. As we love God, serving Him and having that relationship with Him, and serving others. Loving them. (1 Peter 4:7-8)
We find ourselves growing free, to match the spiritual truth that we are already free in Christ.
Cover photo by pexels
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