05/23/20 BLAST FROM THE PAST (8 YEARS AGO)

05/23/20 BLAST FROM THE PAST (8 YEARS AGO)

I wrote the following two part post 8 years ago. Still true and still essential to Christian understanding and Christian living.

From May 23, 2012

#1 Why avoid temptation?
God says, breaking one commandment makes us guilty of breaking them all.
Avoidance limits threat of temptation, thus sin.
God also says there is NO temptation (not one, not any) that we cannot escape.
God enables us to NOT SIN.
I only have to escape one temptation at a time (by God's enabling grace) thereby escaping all sinful activity at that moment.
God does not LEAD US INTO temptation, He LEADS US AWAY from temptation and He DELIVERS US FROM (the) evil (one).
Still, the choice is ours.

PASSAGES...
Luke 11:4
(4) ... And lead us not into temptation; but deliver us from evil.

1 Corinthians 10:13
(13) There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man: but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it.

2 Timothy 4:18
(18) And the Lord shall deliver me from every evil work, and will preserve me unto his heavenly kingdom: to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen.

1 John 2:1
(1) My little children, these things write I unto you, that ye sin not. And if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous:

Jude 1:24
(24) Now unto him that is able to keep you from falling, and to present you faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy,

#2 FOLLOW UP...
If God can keep us from sinning for a moment, He can keep us from sinning for a lifetime, since a lifetime is made up of contiguous moments.
If, by His grace, you can live one moment (second, minute) without deliberately disobeying God, you can live ten minutes, one hour, one day, one lifetime without deliberately disobeying God.
In fact, God says that He has given us His word so that we SIN NOT.

PASSAGES...
Psalms 19:13
(13) Keep back thy servant also from presumptuous sins; let them not have dominion over me: then shall I be upright, and I shall be innocent from the great transgression.

Psalms 119:11
(11) Thy word have I hid in mine heart, that I might not sin against thee.

Romans 6:11-14
(11) Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord.
(12) Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, that ye should obey it in the lusts thereof.
(13) Neither yield ye your members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin: but yield yourselves unto God, as those that are alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness unto God.
(14) For sin shall not have dominion over you: for ye are not under the law, but under grace.

Romans 6:16-20
(16) Know ye not, that to whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants ye are to whom ye obey; whether of sin unto death, or of obedience unto righteousness?
(17) But God be thanked, that ye were the servants of sin, but ye have obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine which was delivered you.
(18) Being then made free from sin, ye became the servants of righteousness.
(19) I speak after the manner of men because of the infirmity of your flesh: for as ye have yielded your members servants to uncleanness and to iniquity unto iniquity; even so now yield your members servants to righteousness unto holiness.
(20) For when ye were the servants of sin, ye were free from righteousness.