Jas 1:21 Wherefore lay apart all filthiness and superfluity of naughtiness, and receive with meekness the engrafted word, which is able to save your souls.
Lay apart… put away, cast aside. This is an action. Once again we come face to face with that old belief that you shouldn't have to do anything at all as a Christian because if you do stuff- such as putting away the filthiness in your life you are hoping that action will save you. WRONG. The people who came up with the idea that you no longer have to obey God's commandments, and you no longer have to 'sin no more', that you no longer have to 'lay apart' anything in your life, that you mustn't try at all to do anything whatsoever because then it's 'works' and not 'grace' you are living by- those people are in league with Satan.
Our Salvation is through our Savior alone. We cannot do anything aside from accept what He's done for us in order to be saved. But once we have experienced that new birth then how can we truly expect to carry on in the old man? How? How can we accept the willful sinning we live in as being acceptable to God, because our not sinning won't save us? God has never and will never accept sin. Anyone that believe God will accept sin is fooling themselves. We need to ask forgiveness for EVERY sin, not just the ones we committed before we first accepted Christ as our Savior. We need to ask for forgiveness for the first sin we commit after we've accepted Christ all the way to the last sin we commit. We will NEVER be in a position as long as we are living in a time before the second coming of our Savior, to sin willfully and neglect to beg, to plead for forgiveness from God.
We are wretched beings and only Christ can save us. As wretched beings we are immersed in a constant warfare with Satan. It is a WAR. People don't realize it, but it is. Our lives are spent in a war! A REAL war. A SPIRITUAL war. When we are tempted to sin that is the enemy warring against us. When we sin that is the enemy claiming a victory over us. When we ask for forgiveness with true repentance and sorrow for that sin we are being renewed by our Savior and declared His, not Satan's. Satan wants us on his side and he'll use any means necessary to get us there. If we live in willful sin we are Satan's. If we live in a constant battle against sins that are so easily besetting us then we are striving against sin and we are claiming Christ as the victor over those sins. If we lay down our lives and no longer strive, no longer set aside, no longer go and sin no more, no longer lay apart all filthiness then we are not living our lives as Christ would have us live them. This war is real and we have our part in it, as a soldier of Christ's we have a leader who has told us so much through His life, through His word, through the words of those guided completely by the Holy Spirit. We cannot get to a point in our lives where we NO longer desire to lay aside the besetting sins. As much pleasure as our flesh nature may receive from these besetting sins, they will NEVER be acceptable to God, never! Our flesh pleasure is not the indicator that something is good and acceptable. If this were true then all those who derive pleasure from acts we call criminal would have the right to say they are acceptable acts, good acts from the simple fact they bring them happiness and pleasure.
We are to deny ourselves-
Luk 9:23 And he said to them all, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow me.
We are to go and sin no more-
Joh 5:14 Afterward Jesus findeth him in the temple, and said unto him, Behold, thou art made whole: sin no more, lest a worse thing come unto thee.
Joh 8:11 She said, No man, Lord. And Jesus said unto her, Neither do I condemn thee: go, and sin no more.
We are to lay aside every weight-
Heb 12:1 Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us
We are to lay apart all filthiness-
Jas 1:21 Wherefore lay apart all filthiness and superfluity of naughtiness, and receive with meekness the engrafted word, which is able to save your souls.
We are to do this and then receive WITH meekness the engrafted word- the word of God- the words of life that will save us. Those words we receive are the words of the gospel our Savior preached to all.
By His grace may WE receive the word of God fully into our lives. May we fight in this war we are embroiled in and not surrender to Satan and his evil, deceptive ways.
Please Lord, SAVE US!
All through Your love!
Amen.
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