Mortify Your Sin

"Put to death, therefore, what is earthly in you: sexual immorality, impurity, passions, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry."-Colossians 3:5

Sometimes when I watch action movies, I do not understand the hero.  He has spent himself pursuing a bad guy who has left a wake of destruction and mayhem.  He finally apprehends the villain and wounds him, but he keeps him alive, perhaps for later questioning.  At the least, he does not make sure is dead.  The protagonist then turns his attention away from the now mortally wounded person and we all know that this action from an otherwise seemingly intelligent person will come back to cause later problems.  I understand that the villain remaining alive creates cinematic tension, but in real life it would reveal a profound stupidity.  The true hero would make sure the villain was unable to retaliate any further and he certainly would not take his eyes off of him until fully restrained. 

Too often as Christians, we do the same things, don't we?  We study God's word and increasingly learn what God desires of us.  We develop a more finely-tuned sense of what is sinful; we learn the patterns of our enemy.  There comes a point when we see our sin, take a shot and wound it.  We may even think the wound is mortal, but too often it is not.  Sometimes, we have developed a relationship with our sin.  Though it repulses us in many ways, there are also ways in which we don't want to get rid of it.  We keep it alive, not realizing it is regaining it's strength.  We make excuses for letting it live.

The verse from Colossians above reminds us that we need to put our sin to death.  The puritan John Owen says it this way: "be killing sin, or it will be killing you!"  We need to "make it [our] daily work; be always at it whilst [we] live; and cease not a day from this work."

Put a bullet in your sin.  Then another, and another.  Every day.   

John Owen Quote-The Sluggard's Field

The heart is like the sluggard's field--so overgrown with weeds that you can scarce see the good corn. Such a man may search for faith, love, and zeal, and scarce be able to find any; and if he does discover that these graces are there yet alive and sincere, yet they are so weak, so clogged with lusts, that they are of very little use; they remain, indeed, but are ready to die. But now let the heart be cleansed by mortification, the weeds of lust constantly and daily rooted up (as they spring daily, nature being their proper soil), let room be made for grace to thrive and flourish--how will every grace act its part, and be ready for every use and purpose!