Lawal, J. O. (2025, April 13). Put them to death. From Pastor’s Desk, Vol. 12, No. 50.
Beloved: Grace, mercy and peace be yours immeasurably from God our Father and Jesus Christ our Lord. I am delighted to welcome you to another week of the month of April 2025. My prayer is that God will daily teach you to take advantage of His grace to walk in victory over every kind of sin or weakness of the spirit, in Jesus’ name. Amen.
Why did I offer this prayer for you? The reason is that it is the will of God for us to put to death any kind of sin that may be associated with our lives. Look at what Paul says about this to the Colossian brethren:
“Put to death, therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly nature: sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires and greed, which is idolatry. Because of these, the wrath of God is coming. You used to walk in these ways, in the life you once lived. But now you must rid yourselves of all such things as these: anger, rage, malice, slander, and filthy language from your lips. Do not lie to each other, since you have taken off your old self with its practices and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge in the image of its Creator.” (Col 3:5-10NIV)
Can you see all the things that we must put to death and also rid our lives of? Then can you observe that we are the ones to put these things to death in our lives? That means even though we are now children of God and new creatures in Christ, the bad things we used to do will still want to find expression in our lives and make a mess of our faith. That is because it has become cultural for us to do them.
But as Paul tells us, it is because of all these evil things that the wrath of God is coming on the disobedient. Therefore, we must not give ourselves to them again. Instead, we must put them to death. And can we actually put them to death? Do we have the ability to put them to death?
Well, if we could not put them to death, God would not say that we should do so. The reason He tells us to do so is that we can do so. But how do we do so? We cannot do so by simply wishing or determining to do so. Peter, for instance, was determined not to deny Jesus. Yet he denied Him three times in a row in one night. So, being determined not to do what is wrong is not enough; we must also possess the ability not to do what is wrong. Otherwise, the pressure of sin may weaken our determination and drive us to do what is against the desires of our hearts. (Cf. Matt 26)
All of this is why the bible further says to us. “For if you live according to the flesh, you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the misdeeds of the body, you will live.” (Rom 8:13NIV) Did you see that? It is only by the supply of the Spirit of God that we can put any kind of sin or bad behaviour to death in our lives. Otherwise, we can only find ourselves failing again and again.
So, if you want to end any kind of sin in your life, you must turn to the Spirit of God for the enablement to do so. How? First, you do so through prayer. Second, you do so by meditating on the word of God and confessing it to yourself. Third, you do so by fellowshipping with the people of God that are walking in righteousness. And as you consistently give yourself to these things, you will soon enough see for yourself that those wrong things that you are struggling with in your life have been put to death by the Spirit of God.
Have a great week.
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