Reading your Bible for today January 25

January 25: 1 Peter 4:1-6

KJV Key Verse: 1 Peter 4:3
3 For the time past of our life may suffice us to have wrought the will of the Gentiles, when we walked in lasciviousness, lusts, excess of wine, revellings, banquetings, and abominable idolatries:

Devotion:
There is absolutely no point trying to ever justify sin, because all sin works against God and against Christ and all He has done for us. If you want to justify it, then maybe you need to try and relate your sin to how much suffering it caused Christ. He died for our sin! That may sound a bit extreme when we first hear it, but the plain truth is the penalty for sin is death and that is exactly what Christ had to pay to cover our sin debt.

A true Christian will aim to follow the will of God and not try to do everything their own way. But it’s not just our aims; feelings, wants, desires are all given in to because of our lack in will power. We are not here to rule our own lives or others, but to submit to the will of God. He wants us to willingly submit but not to be like robots doing exactly what we have been told. When we follow Christ, He changes our hearts so we can see His will more clearly and are able to do His will when asked to. He gives us the ability to turn away from sin and towards Him. That change is a marked change from before we submitted to His authority – it alters our ways of thinking and gives us the ability to see what we do for others or against them.

It is little wonder that we see many people who are not believers in God having all manner of lascivious tendencies in their lives. Indeed, many of us may well think back on the days when we may well have been in that category; the lusts of the flesh cover more than just sexual activity. People who still live like that consider us the odd ones out because we dare to be different, we dare to stand up against their immoral lifestyles. Some will even say we are prejudice because we think they are wrong! It is not us who judge them, but Christ, the one who paid for their sins that judges them...

Points to Ponder:
Do you do some pretty wild things?

How much do you hurt Christ with the things you continue to do?