By Dave Adams
Staff Member
One of the basic foundations for freedom from sexual sin, or any life-dominating sins, is radical amputation. Get rid of the stuff that is causing you to sin; take away the avenues that make your sin easily accessible. Destroy the porn magazine and the “adult” movies. Get rid of the internet or get rid of the whole computer if need be. Drive a different way to work if your usual route takes you past the strip clubs or places where hookers hang out. In other words, do whatever it takes to win this battle. Make no mistake, there is a battle going on, and how successful you are at coming out on top depends a lot on how much you are willing to do to win.
Now there are those who argue “but its not the porn video that causes me to sin, it is my sinful nature. I see no reason to destroy it. I believe true freedom is when I can be around the source of temptation and not give in. It is not a true test of my freedom by taking the temptation out of the picture!” Whenever I hear this I am reminded of a few Bible verses:
“There is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way of death.” Proverbs 14:12, 16:25 (Two verses for this one warning! I think it must be important!)
“…a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways.” James 1:8 Now, admittedly there is more to this section of scripture and the context is different than the area of disobedience, but the correlation of a “double-minded man” to “unstable in all his ways” stands true. These people are double-minded, thinking they are obeying the Word, yet doing things their own way. One foot in the kingdom, one foot out. We are either in or out, but that being in the middle is dangerous and faulty.
It may be true that true evidence will be manifested when we can have the sources of tempation around and we are not given into them, but I have some thoughts here on that, too:
1 – Why give the wicked one any more ammo than he needs? Why put ourselves in the way of tempation? If we are really, truly serious about our purity and our right relationship with Our Lord and Creator, then we will be willing to do whatever it takes to get there and stay there.
2 – The stance “I must stand strong against the source of temptation”, is not Scriptural. Isn’t this another way of saying, “I can do this myself, in my own strength”? Which then says, “Thank you Jesus, what you did on the Cross was really nice and all, but I don’t need you to help with this.” Now, the arguer may say “Oh, but I am relying on Jesus for my strength! I can’t do this without Him!” But, if Jesus is the Word, and the Word is the Scriptures, and we are not obeying the Word, then we are relying on self.
3 – Yes, being able to not give into tempation when the source is right next to you may be a sign of true freedom. But when we are still in the early stages on our journey to freedom, I would argue that we are not yet free. We are escaping, some further from the enemy than others, and until we get rid of those stumbling blocks, there is still a chain attached to us. We need to sever that chain and
get to freedom, experience freedom, fall in love with our Freedom to the point that we want nothing else. At that point we may be able to be in the same room with our stumbling blocks and not yield.
4 – When I hear these arguments, it tells me the person is not ready to give up his sin. He still wants to know it is there when he needs it. It does not show the level of commitment that is needed to be victorious. It speaks of a hardened heart, and an unrepentant spirit.
5 – Either God is the God of your life, occupying first place, and you are willing to submit to His Lordship, or He is not.
So make things easier on yourself. Take out the trash.