Turn Your Foot from Evil

Transcription

1 Turn Your Foot from Evil by Dr. Mary Ann Yaconis Ambassadors for Christ are those who not only preach the gospel, but also live according to the gospel. Therefore, Christians are those who maintain virtuous living rather than succumbing to the immoral lust of the flesh. I Peter 1:3, 4... seeing that His divine power has granted to us everything pertaining to life and godliness, through the true knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory and excellence. For by these He has granted to us His precious and magnificent promises, so that by them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world by lust. When we partake of God s nature, we are refusing to allow the world to ruin our lives with evil desires. The qualities to partake of are moral excellence, knowledge, self-control, perseverance, godliness, brotherly kindness, and love. 2 Peter 1: 8, 9 For if these qualities are yours and are increasing, they render you neither useless nor unfruitful in the true knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. For he who lacks these qualities is blind or shortsighted, having forgotten his purification from his former sins.

2 When we partake of these superb qualities, we are useful to God and then are true ambassadors for Christ. Where we lack in these virtues, we are generally deceived and thinking only of our momentary lustful pleasure or removal of emotional pain. The promise of God that results from partaking of these virtues is tremendous! 2 Peter 1:10, 11 Therefore, brethren, be all the more diligent to make certain about His calling and choosing you; for as long as you practice these things, you will never stumble; for in this way the entrance into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ will be abundantly supplied to you. [Emphasis is added.] The words that are used in 2 Peter 1:10 and 11 are emphatic and important. We are to be DILIGENT and to PRACTICE so that when temptations strike, we will not stumble. The Scripture verses in Ephesians 4 are very clear concerning thoughts and actions that make us stumble. It begins in our futile (useless, senseless, ineffectual, unsuccessful) mind that has a darkened understanding and is ignorant of God. All of this develops a hard heart. A hard heart is calloused (being heartless, cold hearted, cruel). The hard heart stems from living in the lust of the flesh and PRACTICING every kind of impurity not just a little practicing, but greedy for that impurity. (See Ephesians 4:17-19.) The section that follows in Ephesians 4 emphatically tells us that the sin patterns of our old former self are to be laid aside. Most importantly, we are made new by the spirit of our mind so that the new self, which is created in righteousness and holiness, gives no thought to any sin. Parallel to these verses in Ephesians, Proverbs 4 is very

3 clear about this matter of knowing the Word and living it. Proverbs 4: My son, give attention to my words; Incline your ear to my sayings. Do not let them depart from your sight; Keep them in the midst of your heart. For they are life to those who find them and health to all their body. Watch over your heart with all diligence, for from it flow the springs of life. Put away from you a deceitful mouth and put devious speech far from you. Let your eyes look directly ahead and let your gaze be fixed straight in front of you. Watch the path of your feet and all your ways will be established. Do not turn to the right nor to the left; Turn your foot from evil. Concerted effort is required in order to manage our thoughts to reflect righteousness, but it can be done. There are multiple distractions/sins that turn our attention away from looking straight ahead and keeping our foot securely on the path of righteous living. Big problems all started with one small errant thought that was not summarily dismissed. Below are some examples. Lying: As adults, we are tempted to lie for reasons that are self-serving or out of a belief that the lie may help someone else. The idea is NOT to lie. Don t do it the first time. When we tell the lie, it expands and takes on a life of its own. Thinking about telling a lie heads our foot toward evil. The FIRST time we lie leads to destruction, which results in being a liar. The father of lies is the devil (John 8:44), and we become his servant. Hence, just do not tell the first one; speak the truth. Be obedient to God.

4 Stealing: Again, as adults, we think we can take something that does not belong to us, and yet this action turns our foot slightly to the side for a little evil (a pencil here, a dime there). As a result, we become a thief. A little thievery easily magnifies into a terrible sin pattern. Ananias and Sapphira are recorded in the book of Acts carrying out a plan to cheat God. This ended badly. We are to have self-discipline and to restrain ourselves the first time. Divorce: We know from God s Word the importance of the commitment to one another in marriage. This is an example of our commitment to God. When in a repeated heated argument the big D word (divorce) first comes out, it opens up the slippery path to destruction. Statistics for the United States for divorce show that 45 50% of all first marriages end in divorce; 60 67% of all second marriages end in divorce; and 70 73% of all third marriages end in divorce. It is paramount that we do not let our foot turn. In that case, what determines whether our foot turns? The thought we hold in our minds makes our foot turn toward evil or stay upon that path of righteousness. Drug/Alcohol Abuse: The evidences of the horrors of drug and alcohol abuse are rampant in our society. The total overall costs of substance abuse in the United States, including health and crime-related costs and related losses in the workforce, exceed half a trillion dollars annually. (To help with understanding a trillion dollars, the war in Iraq only costs about $200 billion dollars a year.) This number does not begin to cover the cost to abused children, family disintegration, domestic

5 violence, and other crimes (NIDA). Millions of dollars are spent on drug programs that say, Just Say No. Teens are pleaded with not even to smoke one marijuana cigarette. Why? The first one leads to the next. One can become sober and clean, but the emotional and physical toll it requires every day to remain that way takes away energy that is rightfully for us to use to worship God. God wants us to turn from evil and not entertain it. Fornication: There is only one first time. After that, having sex outside of marriage, watching pornography, or acting out in other sexually unholy ways becomes easier and easier. Then when deception is lifted by God s grace and mercy and the desire is to do God s will, the foot, out of habit, appears to turn all by itself to go down the wrong path. The mind then is in a continual battle to maintain the path of God. The main point of this article is very evident. 2 Peter 1:11 states that by living a godly, virtuous life, we will never stumble. God has given us the ability to have the mind of Christ. The point of Ephesians 4 is to be meticulous, hard-working, painstaking, and scrupulous in not entertaining sin the first time. If we fail, then stopping it the second time is harder. Stay upon the path that He has made for us because walking upon God s path gives us entrance into the Kingdom of God. Our foot will never stumble when we constantly think about and have the heart to do the will of God. We can live this way by not entertaining sinful thoughts the first time.

6 Jude 1: 24, 25 Now to Him who is able to keep you from stumbling, and to make you stand in the presence of His glory blameless with great joy, to the only God our Savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, dominion and authority, before all time and now and forever. Amen