"Therefore put to death your members which are on the earth" Colossians 3:5
Paul is saying, "Put to death every part of your self which is against God and keeps you from fulfilling his will."
The Christian must kill self-centeredness and regard as dead all private desires and ambitions. There must be in his life a radical transformation of the will and a radical shift of the centre.
Anything which would keep him from fully obeying God and fully surrendering to Christ must be brought to the Great Physician to be surgically excised.
What are the members that must be put to death?
1. Fornication (NIV sexual immorality):
Fornication means "sexual immorality." Is that your sin today? Let's not kid ourselves-there are a great many folk who are covering up this sin in their thoughts, or in their secret life, and yet they still talk about being dedicated Christians! Paul brings this right out into the open and tells us that we are to put our physical members in the place of death.
Do your eyes cause you trouble? Do you look with the eye of lust? Put those eyes in the place of death, and now use them as the eyes of Christ to look upon Him. That will change things, will it not?
Because of Christ's death for my sins-He can nowdefeat any form of fornication in my life.
2. Uncleanness (NIV impurity):
This includes thoughts, words, looks, gestures, and the jokes we tell.
Because of Christ's death for my sins-He can nowdefeat any form of impurity and uncleanness in my life.
3. Passion (NIV lust):
In the KJV "inordinate affection" means "uncontrolled passion or lust." This denotes a kind of person who is the slave of his passion (palkos)
Because Christ died for me-He can nowdefeat any form of impurity and uncleanness in my life.
4. Evil desire:
This is KJV evil concupiscence-that means "evil desires." This denotes a person who is driven by the desire for the wrong things (epithumia).
Because of Christ's death for my sins-He can nowdefeat any form of enslaving passion in my life.
To continue this message with what to put off and what to put on spiritually, click here.
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