Even If i Walk Alone

Instructing and encouraging you to live your life as a disciple of Jesus

I Corinthians

Sin

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Almost all our sins will fall into two categories. We sin because we are trying to make ourselves equal with God, or by refusing to be who God created us to be. Either way, we spend our days in rebellion, as both forms of sin deny God is who He says He is. When we make everything about us, we place ourselves on God’s throne.

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We deny the sufficiency of Christ and fall into sin when our desires overrule our surrender and our wants become needs (James 4:1-3). This has been the story of mankind since the Garden of Eden as our pride and selfishness usurp God’s authority and drive a wedge between us and our Creator (Genesis 3:4-6; Romans 1:21-23).

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Get Ready

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Jesus is coming back and we better get ready. Scripture makes it clear that His coming will be unexpected (Matthew 24:36). It’s going to shock everyone because we aren’t living our lives in eager anticipation of His return (1 Thessalonians 5:2-6). Since you got out of bed this morning, how many times have you thought about the fact that this could be it? You might see Jesus in the very next minute!

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Most days, we would have to answer that we have given little thought to it at all. Sure, on an intellectual level we recognize the possibility He could come back today, but that’s a far cry from eagerly anticipating it (Philippians 3:19-21)! Why are we not more excited about the coming of our salvation? Is it because we’ve become enamored with this world?

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A Living Sacrifice

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Are you living your life as a living sacrifice to God (Romans 12:1)? It is what God commands us to do, but how many of us understand what this means, much less are doing it? Jesus gave His life for us, a perfect sinless sacrifice for every sin we have ever or will ever commit. His death was the sacrifice needed to assuage God’s wrath over our sins (Isaiah 53:5-6; 1 John 2:2; Romans 5:8-9).

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His sacrifice became the model for how each of us is to conduct their lives (1 Peter 2:21; Ephesians 5:1-2). We aren’t perfect and never will be. At the same time, we are called to be holy, just as He is holy (Leviticus 11:45; 1 Peter 1:15-16). There aren’t some commands of God that we can take seriously and others we can disregard. If we love Him, we will keep all His commands (John 14:15; 1 John 2:3-6).

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Your Approval

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As followers of Christ, we spend our lives pursuing obedience to His commands (John 14:15). Our love for Him compels us to live lives of obedience not because we must, but because it is the deep desire of our hearts. It’s easy to focus on the things you are doing do but ignore the things receiving your approval. We avoid the obvious sins but fail to recognize that approving of the sinful behavior of others is just as much a sin as if we were committing those acts ourselves (Romans 1:32).

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We are not to have any association with the darkness in our world (Ephesians 5:11; 2 Corinthians 6:14-17). It’s not enough to be separate in our behavior but also in our associations and to be mindful of that which receives our support and blessing.

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Your Mindset

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I like black and white. Black and white is simple; it has no need for nuance. There is truth and there are lies. There is wrong and there is right. Paul pulls out another black-and-white issue in the eighth chapter of his letter to the Church in Rome (Romans 8:1-11). In these verses, Paul talks about how we all have one of two mindsets. We either have the mindset of life or the mindset of death.

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That’s about as black and white as it gets. On the surface, the choice seems obvious: do you want life or death? While the choice on paper is easy, aligning our lives with that choice is much more challenging. Every decision you make feeds into your mindset, so we must be careful with every decision, big or small.

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