let’s break down verses Galatians 5:19-21, and 1 Corinthians 6:9 and truly get an understanding of what sin is.
In the blog post, What is Sin? I use the scriptures Galatians 5:19-21, and 1 Corinthians 6:9 to share the sins that prevent people from getting into heaven, but I want to further break it down and get into each individual sin so that you can have a better understanding of what is acceptable and unacceptable to God. Also, so that you can truly know whether or not you are living in sin yourself. Let’s start with Galatians 5:19, which reads, “which are; adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lewdness, idolatry, sorcery, hatred, contentions, jealousies, outbursts of wrath, selfish ambitions, dissensions, heresies, envy, murders, drunkenness, [and] revelries.” Some of these may sound familiar and you understand what they mean, but I know for myself that some of these were confusing until I fully educated myself. But let’s get into the breakdown!
Adultery
Adultery is when a married person steps out of the boundaries of marriage and commits sexual acts with another person. This is common in our society and I am positive you already knew what it was. It is also according to Jesus when a man or woman divorces their spouse to marry another (Mark 10:11-12) this does not include if they divorce due to abuse, cheating, or anything that violates God’s intentions for marriage. Which is the husband loves his wife as Christ loves the church (Ephesians 5:25) and they become one flesh (1: Peter 3:7). When you follow these guidelines for marriage, and there are plenty more, the need to step out is simply not there. And this perfectly goes into the next sin, because not only does adultery violate what God meant for marriage, but it also involves fornication which God hates.
Fornication
“For this is the will of God, your sanctification,”
1 Thessalonians 4:3 NKJV
Fornication is engaging in premarital or extramarital sex before or outside of marriage. So having sex with your boyfriend or girlfriend, fiance, or someone you are not married to is fornication. The Bible calls for us to be pure as our bodies are the temple of the Holy Spirit (1 Corinthians 6:19-20). If you are to honor God and His Word, you must be careful and watchful of who you let inside your body. When you decide to sleep with someone you are also deciding to connect with them on a spiritual level, you get an impartation of whatever spirits they may be carrying with them. Additionally, in 1 Thessalonians 4:3-5, it says, “For this is the will of God, your sanctification: that you should abstain from sexual immorality; that each of you should know how to possess his own vessel in sanctification and honor, not in the passion of lust, like the Gentiles who do not know God.” So let’s get into this, in order to serve God in true righteousness and holiness, we must sanctify ourselves, and that means letting go of our lustful desires. If Jesus wouldn’t do it, you shouldn’t either, so I know Jesus wouldn’t even dare to have sex outside of marriage, meaning, you should follow that example as well. Also, sanctifying ourselves honors God and when we love God with all our hearts, minds, and souls, we want to honor Him in any way we can, including how we conduct our bodies. You will never reach your full potential in God if you continue to feed your flesh with sex. One of the fruits of the Spirit stated in Galatians 5:22 is self-control, so being able to sanctify yourself unto the Lord by not engaging in sex, is demonstrating that you indeed have the Holy Spirit, and are representing God how He wishes to be. So the next time you are tempted to have sex or commit sexual acts, think about your relationship with God, do you want that to be stunted or do you want it to grow? Do you love God with all your heart, mind, and soul? Do you wish to honor Him with your life? And finally, do you want God to give you His best or nothing at all because you rather please your flesh than Him?
Uncleanness
In physical means, uncleanness is exactly what it means, unclean, dirty, messy. So it’s a sin to be dirty? Yes, think of it this way, if God walked into your home, office, place of work, etc, would He be pleased with the way it looks? If not, you got some cleaning up to do. Cleanliness represents the spirit of excellence given to us from Christ, being simply represents God well. To dive a little deeper, uncleanness also means living a reckless life, engaging in sexual immorality, (which is why when someone is sexually promiscuous they are at a much higher risk of contracting STDs), and having impure and wicked thoughts. First, living a reckless life means you have no order, you spend your time essentially, wildin’ out, partying, drinking, doing drugs, engaging in sexual sin, etc. This is not the life God has called us to live, God wants us to live wisely and not spend our time indulging in things that please our flesh. Second, sexual immorality, as I touched on in fornication when you decide to have sex with someone you are also deciding to connect with them spiritually. This can make you unclean as not everyone has pure spirits, and just a word of wisdom, if you are engaging in premarital sex with someone, they are either someone who does not have the Holy Spirit or is suppressing Him. And as a Christian, those are people you do not want to engage with, in such an intimate way. Through sex outside of marriage, you are getting imparted the spirit of lust, which the Bible states many times is an unclean spirit. Additionally, in a physical sense, the more sexual partners you have, the most likely you are to contract an STD, making you unclean physically. And last, impure and wicked thoughts include any thoughts that go against the knowledge of God, (II Corinthians 10:5), so thoughts of lust, murder, adultery, stealing, dishonesty, etc. Essentially thoughts go against God’s Word and His commandments to us. These thoughts may do no harm while in your head, but if you meditate on a thought long enough, you will eventually act on it, and that is what makes it a sin. So it is better to “cast down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God and bring it into captivity to the obedience of Christ”, which means to rebuke those thoughts and follow the Word of God, rather than the sin that those thoughts encourage.
Lewdness
Lewdness is when you engage in anything crude or offensive in a sexual way. An example of Lewdness we all may know is public nudity, but this definition is quite simple, anything you do that is sexually inappropriate. Jesus calls for us to love our neighbors as ourselves, so when you follow that commandment it is easy to not offend people or be inappropriate with, especially in a sexual way, because you respect them through the love of Christ you have for them.
Idolatry
Though it may be surprising, idolatry is not when you put a hobby or a football team, or working out, above God. However, according to the Bible, it has a different meaning, in Exodus 20:3-5 it says, “You shall have no other gods before Me. You shall not make for yourself a carved image–any likeness of anything that is in heaven above or that is in the earth beneath, or this is in the water under the earth; you shall not bow down to them nor serve them. For I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God.” According to this verse, idolatry is when you make a physical image, statue, carving, etc. that is supposed to represent a god and begin to worship said image or statue. God doesn’t want us worshipping things that were built by man, He wants us to worship Him who created man. Idolatry is the main reason why God left the children of Isreal, to Him, it was a form of cheating because they weren’t following after God with all their hearts, minds, and souls.
“You shall have no other gods before Me.” … For I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God.”
Exodus 20:3-5 NKJV
Instead, they fell in love with the gods they created, rather than with Whom created them. God is a jealous God and wants all your attention, for good reason, because when you focus all your attention on Him, that is when He focuses His attention on you and makes sure that everything works out for your good. If you ever read the Old Testament one thing you’ll realize is that when Isreal began worshipping their gods, they started to lose battles and in general struggle immensely as a nation, but when they got right with God again, that is when they had the victory concerning their lives. (read Isaiah)
Sorcery
Sorcery is any use of magic or witchcraft. I’m sure you heard of it, seen it on television, in a movie, etc. This sin you don’t come across that often in America, but it is present in this country. Sorcery is a sin because it draws on powers that are not of God and all kind of witchcraft comes from the devil. I know some people say that they are Christian witches but they are lying because there is no such thing and it never says anything about Christian witches in the Bible. Now this part some of y’all might not like but sorcery/witchcraft isn’t only casting spells and talking to spirits, it can start small like with zodiac signs/horoscopes, crystals, and manifestation. I won’t get into too much because I will be writing a blog post about it. But briefly, when you engage in reading/following horoscopes, using crystals, and manifestation, you are drawing on a power that is not of God. Any power you gain from these things are evil spirits from the devil, as you try to draw on ‘your higher self’ trying to make things happen in your life, you’re actually opening a door to the enemy to dictate your life. You are opening this door because you believe that these actions are going to change your life, but you’re missing incorporating the Word of God, you rely on yourself or the ‘universe’. God isn’t going to respond to those actions because they go against His Word, but satan will, so these methods may work, but they bring about unclean spirits, that can eventually lead to heavy witchcraft. But as I said, I’ll go more in-depth in a later post.
This is not everything but I don’t want to bore you and there is a part two! So go and read! But I hope this sheds some light on what these sins are and you are able to identify if you fall into these categories. If you do, know that God loves you very much and is ready to forgive you if you repent. You can turn away from sin today and it doesn’t have to hold you, hostage, you can live a free and victorious life! The choice is yours :), I hope this helped and God bless!
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