The Last Days Of The Church XXII

 Although the notion of self-control flies in the face of modern-day dogma, wherein we are told that having it and practicing it is akin to legalism, men being without self-control within the church will be one of the signs heralding the last days. Either you have mastery over your urges, or your urges have mastery over you. Either you have control over your flesh, or your flesh controls you to the point that in the rare moments of lucidity, you wonder how you got where you are, so far away from anything resembling joy, peace, or fulfillment. There is no in-between, and the less one exercises self-control in their day-to-day life, the easier it becomes for the devil to set a snare and shackle the individual anew. It is eye-opening and somewhat terrifying to realize how much one’s own flesh despises the spiritual man and the lengths to which it will go to ensure its destruction, even if that likewise guarantees the destruction of the flesh itself.

It’s akin to the story of the tortoise and the scorpion, wherein, after hours of begging and reassurance, the tortoise finally relents and agrees to ferry the scorpion across the pond, only for the scorpion to sting the tortoise halfway through the journey.

“Why would you do such a thing,” the tortoise asks, “you’ve assured our mutual demise. Now we will both die.”

“Because it is my nature,” the scorpion says as they sink to the bottom. It is the nature of men’s flesh to be at enmity with the spiritual man. However much the flesh protests and insists that mutually assured destruction is not its purpose, the end result of sin always is. There is a reason we are commanded to crucify the flesh, and it’s not to cause ourselves undue pain; it is to ensure that the spiritual man survives and thrives.

We all know what sin is. The Bible makes it clear, and there is no ambiguity about it, but much of what the Bible calls sin is common practice in many churches, and we somehow always find a way to justify it, excuse it, or pretend as though it’s not sin. We either point to the changing times, the changing culture, changing appetites, or the one that gets my goad, an evolving understanding of what it is to be a believer, yet fail to contend with the reality that we serve a God who changes not. Just because men have decided a particular practice is no longer a sin does not mean that God agrees or that He likewise has gone back on His word and now celebrates that which He once found abhorrent.

Galatians 5:19-21, “Now the works of the flesh are evident, which are: adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lewdness, idolatry, sorcery, hatred, contentions, jealousies, outbursts of wrath, selfish ambitions, dissensions, heresies, envy, murders, drunkenness, revelries, and the like; of which I tell you beforehand, just as I also told you in the past, that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.”

Whenever men proceed to give license to practices that God has decreed as sinful, they are undermining the authority of God and diminishing His sovereignty. That only serves to embolden those without self-control, and because sin is corrosive and ever-growing, by the time it’s ferreted out, it’s done so because the pastor was on the news getting arrested for the gravest of crimes.

Self-control is a necessary virtue in the life of a believer, and the absence thereof will always have them making choices they will later regret, feel shame about, or draw them away from the light into the shadows where the sharpened claws and sharpened fangs await.

James 4:7, “Therefore submit to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.”

Self-control is how we resist the devil. The sad reality is that many who fall into repeated habitual sin, however that sin might manifest, do so because they have not exercised self-control in a given situation and so gave in to the temptation that was proffered to them. The devil didn’t make you do it; he can’t make you do anything. What he can do is provide the opportunity. He can and does put out that piece of cheese, hoping to disguise the trap it’s trying to hide.

The master you love is the master you obey. The master you love is the master you follow. Your nature is revealed not in what you say but in what you do, the company you keep, the way you spend your time and resources, and on whom. Some people love their sin more than they love God, and it shows. They may profess love for Him, but words without actions are only words and nothing more.

If I told my wife I loved her every morning upon waking, then proceeded to spend the rest of the day with a stranger, buying her flowers and treating her to dinner, would my words hold any weight? Would my actions confirm my assertion that I loved her, or would they stand as a testimony against me?

When you love someone, whether God, your spouse, or your children, your heart’s desire is to spend as much time with them as you can. You prioritize them, you nurture the relationship, you are attentive to their needs, and you pursue an ever-deepening bond. When all that those who profess love for Jesus have ever done was raise a hand in church, then nevermore considered Him, desired Him, or sought to know Him in a deeper, more meaningful way, their profession, however boisterous, is demonstrably false.

When the modern-day church redefined salvation from a lifelong journey of submission to God and obedience to His Word to a one-time experience, a single prayer, or a walk down the aisle, it opened the floodgates to all the things Paul warns about as being the cause for the perilous times that would come.

The frivolous attitude with which many treat things of eternal import is disheartening and troubling. This isn’t just an American Christianity issue or an issue pertaining to a specific denomination. The attitude is cross-denominational and is readily observed in every Western nation, wherein there is no persecution of Christianity and no cost to calling oneself a Christian.

Paul makes it clear that there is a high cost to practicing such things. He reiterates that there are consequences to living in accordance with the desires of the flesh rather than in obedience to the Word of God, and it’s not a slap on the wrist or a disappointed look from the Almighty. There is no ambiguity in his declaration that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God, yet many ignore or brush off this dire warning as they do much of scripture that does not align with their compromised state.

With love in Christ,

Michael Boldea, Jr.  

Posted on 29 July 2024 | 11:16 am