Romans 6:23

Sin is not a list of bad actions. It is an industry.

Paul never speaks of it as a slip. He speaks of it as a power with a payroll. "The wages of sin is death." Romans 6:23. Wages. It employs. It pays. It has a whole body of operations working inside a man: "I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind." Romans 7:23. A law. A system. A supply chain whose only product is death.

And the thing about an industry is that it never sleeps. It doesn't take your rest days off.

𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗽𝗮𝘁𝘁𝗲𝗿𝗻 𝗜 𝗸𝗲𝗲𝗽 𝘀𝗲𝗲𝗶𝗻𝗴

When we are young in the faith we fight like soldiers. We fast. We pray at midnight. We listen to messages until the phone dies. We are desperate to be free from the thing that keeps besetting us, and God honours it. The chains fall.

Then something subtle happens. Having been delivered, we want a holiday from the disciplines that delivered us. We ease off the Word. Prayer becomes occasional. Feeding becomes grazing. We call it rest, maturity, balance.

It is like a man who was filthy, had a thorough bath, and now reasons that since he is clean he need not bathe again. He wants the one bath to last forever.

Jesus said the opposite. "He that is washed needeth not save to wash his feet, but is clean every whit." John 13:10. Once-washed, yes. But feet, daily. The world is dusty and you walk in it. Paul calls it "the washing of water by the word." Ephesians 5:26. Washing, present continuous.

𝗙𝗲𝗲𝗱𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗶𝘀 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝘄𝗮𝗿𝗳𝗮𝗿𝗲

Here is where Romans is unrelenting. "They that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh; but they that are after the Spirit the things of the Spirit." Romans 8:5. The battle is not won at the point of temptation. It is won at the point of diet. What you mind is what you are feeding, and what you feed grows.

Victory is not achieved by struggling harder against sin but by living from another Life, and that Life is sustained only by continually drawing on Christ. The flesh cannot be improved. It can only be starved while the Spirit is fed. "Make not provision for the flesh." Romans 13:14. Don't stock its pantry.

And Psalm 8:2 is the hidden key. "Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings hast thou ordained strength because of thine enemies, that thou mightest still the enemy and the avenger." Strength to silence the enemy is ordained from the mouths of sucklings, the ones still feeding. Not the mature who stopped nursing. The strength is in the mouth that is still at the breast.

Stop sucking, and the avenger speaks again.

𝗡𝗼𝘁 𝗲𝘃𝗲𝗿𝘆 𝗵𝗮𝘁𝗿𝗲𝗱 𝗼𝗳 𝘀𝗶𝗻 𝗶𝘀 𝗵𝗼𝗹𝘆

This is the part that exposes us. Many people want to be free from sin, but not for God's reasons.

A man will fight masturbation because it is shameful, dirty, something he'd never confess aloud. He'll hate pornography because it makes him feel small. Good. But that same man feels nothing about his pride. Nothing about ambition that quietly dethrones God. Nothing about the gossip, the cutting tongue, the love of money, the unforgiveness towards a brother. Those feel natural. Normal. Sometimes morally respectable.

That is not hatred of sin. That is hatred of shame. He is not offended that sin grieves God. He is offended that it embarrasses him.

True repentance hates sin because of Whom it offends, not because of how it looks. "Against thee, thee only, have I sinned." Psalm 51:4. David's adultery and his murder were equally against God, though one was more scandalous.

𝗡𝗼 𝗵𝗲𝗶𝗴𝗵𝘁 𝗶𝘀 𝗲𝘅𝗲𝗺𝗽𝘁

There is no level of growth, no title, no anointing, no years in the faith where the little besetting things cannot trap a man again. "The sin which doth so easily beset us." Hebrews 12:1. Easily. Not for beginners. For runners. "Let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall." 1 Corinthians 10:12

The moment the dutiful attention to the soul is taken for granted, the moment feeding stops, the industry resumes production. It never closed. It was only starved.

𝗦𝗼 𝘄𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗿𝗲𝗺𝗮𝗶𝗻𝘀?

Only those who take up the discipline of living the life daily, who adopt the culture and the art of purifying themselves unto holiness, maintain a healthy spiritual life. "Every man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself." 1 John 3:3. Present tense. A culture, not an event.

Reckon yourself dead to sin daily. Romans 6:11.
 Mind the Spirit daily. Romans 8:5.
 Renew the mind daily. Romans 12:2.
 Make no provision daily. Romans 13:14.
 Wash the feet daily. John 13:10.

You did not bath once. You will not feed once.

The enemy is still waiting for the day you stop sucking.

Don't give him the day.

#Faith #Holiness #Romans #SpiritualDiscipline