For that which I do I allow not: for what I would, that do I not; but what I hate, that do I.A good friend while driving in traffic shouted at the drivers in front of him as he weaved in and out, angrily. He shouted between clenched teeth, "I have His peace." Still, the anger and the sentiment towards those drivers belied his words.
(Rom. 7:15)
A Christian couple came to me after being convicted and subsequently offended by a decision that I had made. "I love you," they said to me. They followed that with a slurred, "I forgive you."
All the while they were trying to tell their story to anyone that would listen in the hopes of discouraging their attendance at Faith Exchange Fellowship. They didn't love me.
They hadn't forgiven me. They just said words that they thought would legally protect them from ramifications.
"Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks."
Today, I sat as I contemplated the power of "a rose by any other name would most definitely smell as sweet." A rose is a rose. It has thorns, but the emanating aroma and the beauty of the bud have no rival.
As true as this, so is anger and bitterness. They cannot be disguised with words of scripture or positive confessions.
For the good that I would I do not: but the evil which I would not, that I do. Now if I do that I would not, it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me. I find then a law, that, when I would do good, evil is present with me.These powerful truths bring to us our freedom. In every good Christian there is a fleshly voice and a spiritual voice. There is the voice of the Holy Spirit and the voice that is still attached to the realm of death through the flesh.
For I delight in the law of God after the inward man: But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members.
O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death? I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. So then with the mind I myself serve the law of God; but with the flesh the law of sin.
(Rom. 7:19-25)
Achieving a walk that resembles the gait of Jesus is to know your adversary. That is the lure of the flesh/world and it truly is weaker than the power of the spirit.
Anger, sarcasm, bitterness, rancor, fear, doubt, envy, jealousy, unforgiveness and the rest will visit every person. No one is exempt from these visitations.
When they come we must know that we are to use the sword of the spirit to control the temptation to give into these things, knowing that "what the devil means for harm, He, our advocate, will turn around for good."
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