Kill Them!

The beauty of the Christian life under the grace of God is the freedom to do what we cannot do before we experience the grace of God. In the former life we had, we were accustomed to practice evil deeds that are contrary to God’s nature. But Paul reminds us that since we have been raised with Christ, we must set our minds on the things above and not on earthly things (3:2) which are the works of the sinful nature. Paul said that in order for us to set our minds on the things above we must therefore put to death anything that belongs to our sinful nature: sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires, greed, anger, rage, malice, slander, and filthy language from our lips (vv.5,8). It’s so easy to read this passage and neglect or ignore the command given here. But we must time and again be confronted by this command since this is the real Christian way of life under grace.

Being under grace does not only mean we are no longer under any divine judgment but it also means that we are under a new way of life – a life that shuns sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires, greed, anger, rage, malice, slander, and filthy language from our lips. Anything that is COMPATIBLE with the sins mentioned is NOT APPROPRIATE for the Christian. Christians should learn or begin to learn to practice putting to death all of these sinful tendencies. The question is how much cooperation have we given to the Spirit of God in putting these things to death? Are we indeed in the serious business of putting these spiritual pests to death? Or perhaps we are somewhat complacent heeding this command because we capitalize on the idea that we have been born again anyway? Sure we are born again and that’s exactly the reason why the Word of God commanded us to put these things to death. Born again Christians should set their minds on things above and that includes setting their minds or becoming serious in putting the work of the sinful nature to death. Generally and practically speaking, it is difficult to put these things to death instantly. But that is not the only way to put to death anything. We can put to death these things gradually and that is an acceptable way to do it in the practical sense. The important thing here is we are seriously engaging ourselves in the putting to death of these sinful activities (gradually or not) which we are now capable of doing because of God's grace in us. To do less than this is a misunderstanding of living the Christian life under the grace of God. Therefore, start killing them.