Break the Sin Pattern!

Many believers struggle with sin in their lives that is more than just temptation or cultural provocations to sin against the moral standards of God.  These struggles involve rooted habits of behavior that have become part of the personality and, therefore, the practical lifestyle that marks a person's life.  I believe that it is these kinds of spiritual issues that most of us fight against each day that we get out bed.

I remember when I was a new believer in Christ, I had my own set of struggles with sin which seemed to be winning more battles than I was winning in my Christian walk.  I didn't know or immediately understand the kinds of spiritual strategies that God outlined in the Word.  Therefore I had little victory and a lot of defeat early on.  But as I encountered key passages in Scripture that dealt with some of my ingrained lifestyle, victory became more common than defeat.  Let me share one of those with you today.

In Colossians 3:5-9, Paul laid out for this local church, and for us today, two essential keys for defeating sin.  Let's look at the text,

Therefore consider the members of your earthly body as dead to immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and greed, which amounts to idolatry.  For it is on account of these things that the wrath of God will come, and in them you also once walked, when you were living in them.  But now you also,  put them all aside: anger, wrath, malice, slander, and abusive speech from your mouth. Do not lie to one another.

First of all God wants us to have the right perspective from which to view our Christian position.  That means that because

...our old self was crucified with Christ, that our body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin (Romans 6:6)

Our new position is one of death to sin.  Before you were saved you were a slave to sin.  Now in Christ, you have been delivered from this slavery (literally chained to sinful actions).  That is the new position of every believer in Jesus Christ.  Because we are literally loosed from the chains of sin by way of our being forgiven in Christ, we are now free to live without it!

Back in the slave period of America, President Lincoln declared legal freedom to every slave in America in the Emancipation Proclamation.  That meant that every slave was now free to leave their owners and pursue life as a free man.  Most did, but some never got that message and remained in slavery despite the fact that they had been freed from their bondage.

Many Christians do the same thing with sin after being freed in Christ.  They continue living under the domination of sinful behavior while possessing the freedom to do otherwise!  How can this happen?  There is one other thing that must accompany the slave's new position of freedom.

Notice the apostle's words,

But now you also,  put them all aside.

I have enlarged these words to help us see the importance of what we are being admonished to do here.  We must remember that we cannot grow and mature in Christ without obeying this command.  This imperative for the believer uses the Greek term nekroo which is the word for death!  Paul says that we are to consider our old sinful life as dead, or more literally to put our old sinful life to death.

Paul always links doctrine with practice.  The new doctrine is that you are free from your old slavery to sin.  The new practice is that now you are to live in that reality by killing the old patterns of sinful life.  You don't have to live under the old slavemaster anymore!  You are not only free to go, but you have a greater power of the indwelling Spirit to enable constant victory over sin as you practice godliness.

Are you struggling with old sinful thoughts?  Stop going there!  Consider them as dead because they offer you nothing but misery, weakness, and pain.  Are you struggling with some practice of sin?  Remind yourself of your new position and power for change.  Stop yielding!  Seek prayer support from a counselor, family member, or friend.  Find friends who have been freed from it themselves and get a spiritual support group!  You can do this because God demands it, and His calling is His enablement!  Don't be easily discouraged, when you fall, seek forgiveness and restoration with your loving Father and get up.  He loves you and will walk with you every step as you discover your freedom in Christ!










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