One carnal judgment of another person only serves the purposes of hell in you. Bring it immediately into the light and confess, “Oh, Lord, I have been guilty there.” If you don’t, your heart will become hardened through and through. One of the penalties of sin is our acceptance of it. It is not only God who punishes for sin, but sin establishes itself in the sinner and takes its toll. No struggling or praying will enable you to stop doing certain things, and the penalty of sin is that you gradually get used to it, until you finally come to the place where you no longer even realize that it is sin. No power, except the power that comes from being filled with the Holy Spirit, can change or prevent the inherent consequences of sin.
“If we walk in the light as He is in the light. . .” (1 John 1:7). For many of us, walking in the light means walking according to the standard we have set up for another person. The deadliest attitude of the Pharisees that we exhibit today is not hypocrisy but that which comes from unconsciously living a lie. CHAMBERS
One of the mistakes that Christians make is under-estimating the power of the Flesh .. their old nature. Accepting Christ, being saved .. becoming a child of the King is not where the stops … We will spend our lives facing life choices … walking after the Spirit or the Flesh. Living by Faith or by Sight. When we yield to temptation to sin, that sin establishes itself in us, it takes up residence in us. As Chambers suggests, over time, you get used to it and eventually you don’t even see it as sin. Before I was a believer, profanity was a big part of my life. After I became a Christian, the words I chose to use changed … profane words are a reflection of the heart “But those things which proceed out of the mouth come from the heart, and they defile a man. For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies. These are the things which defile a man, but to eat with unwashed hands does not defile a man." (Matthew 15:18-20) I have heard many Christians use profanity as if was nothing more than a word and not a reflection. But the Word says …
“Let no corrupt (unwholesome in some translations) word proceed out of your mouth, but what is good for necessary edification, that it may impart grace to the hearers. And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. Let all bitterness, wrath, anger, clamor, and evil speaking be put away from you, with all malice. And be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God in Christ forgave you.” (Ephesians 4:29-32)
We are to be about imparting grace to the people around us. As Chambers suggests, over time, you get used to it. Some years back my daughter had a friend come over to the house. They were watching a video (VCR Tape) and we were pretty careful about what we allowed them to watch. I happened to be in the room when the girl gasped and physically jerked backward. I ran the tape back to see what it was … one of the characters had used the Lord’s name in vain. I didn’t even hear it … I was in the military where I heard that language every day, and I had become de-sensitized to it … to the point that I ignored it … but I put that little girl in a situation that she should not have been in, at least never in my house. I still remember that, but you know what … not allowing the culture to influence me and others through me is still a challenge … We underestimate the power of the Flesh.
The Word of God is like a piercing light that invades the darkness and illuminates our sin so that we can confess it and be restored. I don’t presume to fully understand the depth of this topic, but I do know what the Word says about it and what the Word says about how I am to live my life. I do understand that God has given His Word to us to help us to understand and to live the life He has called us in to. And I that once my sin has been exposed, if I confess my sin, He is faithful and just to forgive my sin and cleanse me from all unrighteousness. (1 John1:9) When Jesus was washing Peter’s feet, Peter said He should wash his whole body. But Jesus said that Peter was ‘clean’ and only had need of having his feet washed because he had been tramping around in the world. Don’t deceive yourself and think you don’t need your feet washed. And then you can let your light shine before all men …
Bondye Beni Ou (God Bless You)
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