Does It Take All That?

Many think we can live a loose life, abusing grace and continuing on in our sin and still make it into heaven. They want to relax God’s standards of holiness and will say, “it doesn’t take all of that to live saved.” But judging from the words of Jesus in Matthew 5:29-30, it takes all of that! In this passage Jesus states, “If your right eye causes you to stumble, gouge it out and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to be thrown into hell. And if your right hand causes you to stumble, cut it off and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to go into hell.” Jesus makes it clear that we are to go to extreme measures to keep ourselves in a place of purity and to flee temptation. He is not encouraging us to harm ourselves by gouging out our eyes and chopping off our hand. He instead is saying that we should remove from our lives the things that will cause us to succumb to temptations, even if our actions seem radical. Living saved is not for the faint of heart, and the temptations of the enemy are real. We cannot take a passive approach in resisting temptation. We have to radically reject what the enemy brings us and the things that make us stumble. If you have stumbled, don’t stay knocked down. Repent and, as the Lord reveals the things that threaten to ensnare you again, be mindful to flee from those things. We don’t have to do this in our own strength, God’s grace is there to keep us from falling if we want to be kept. The sinful pleasures we deny ourselves of now are nothing compared to the reward that awaits us in heaven.

Be Blessed

Anika