One of the last day signs Jesus predicted in Matthew 24, in answer to His disciples’ query: “And because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold. But he that endures to the end shall be saved” (12-13). Iniquity is anomia in Greek and means lawlessness. A growing disregard for God’s laws will cause many to lose their love and obedience for the Bible. Every generation is more brazen and corrupt than the one before it. When Noah’s generation had become intolerable, God destroyed it (Gen.6:5-6). Jesus said that as it was in the days of Noah, it shall be in the days of the coming of His return (v.37).
Sin is not static—it increases! Consider the prophet’s words to a backsliding Israel: “They hearkened not unto me, nor inclined their ear, but hardened their necks. They did worse than their fathers” (Jer.7:26). “They proceed from evil to evil” (Jer.9:3). “I chastened you for the multitude of your iniquity, because your sins were increased” (Jer.30:14). “And now they sin more and more” (Hos.13:2). The NT messengers agree:
“But evil workers shall wax worse and worse, deceiving and being deceived” (2Tim.3:13). “For if after they had escaped the pollutions of the world through the knowledge of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they are again entangled therein and overcome, the latter end is worse with them than the beginning” (2Pet.2:20).
Jesus taught that when an unclean spirit is gone out of a person, he is delivered from bondage and sin. “His house—soul and spirit—are swept and garnished, and empty.” But it will not stay empty. If he does not become filled with the Spirit of God, then the spirit that once had him returns, and when he finds it empty,“he goes and takes with himself seven other spirits more wicked than himself, and they enter in and dwell there, and the last state of that man is worse than the first. Even so shall it be also unto this wicked generation” (Matt.1:43-45).
Paul wrote in Romans 6:19: “…For as you have yielded your members (physical body) servants to uncleanness and to iniquity unto iniquity, even so now yield your members servants to righteousness unto holiness.” This is why we are commanded: “Be filled with the Spirit” (Eph.5:18). The Greek employs the present tense which means continual, habitual action. In other words: Stay filled with the Spirit!
Iniquity—the disregard of Scripture—increases sin. Righteousness increases holiness and sanctification in one’s life. Both are predicated on a person’s action of their will. Who will you yield your body to? Jesus said those who endure to the end shall be saved—you must cross the finish line. Paul indicted the Galatians: “You did run well, but who did hinder you that you should not obey the truth?” (5:7). Whose influence are you under that has gotten you off course? What teaching-persuasion are you under that has misdirected your belief system? What sin is besetting you?
“Let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which does so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us” (Heb.12:2). In Greek grammar, lay aside is a past participle, better translated: “having laid aside.” It is an action completed in the past, and it precedes the action of the main verb. The main verb is run. The past action is having laid aside. The point: you cannot run with endurance unless you have laid aside the weights and the sin that so easily besets you. The sin you don’t lay aside can become the sin that knocks you off course and out of the race.
The term beset is two Greek words: huper corresponds to the English hyper. statos means to stand. Compounded, it is an intense word meaning to stand around you, to surround you. The implication is that it has an advantage over you. If you don’t deal with it, it will sideline you. You must lay it aside—put it off!
How Do We Do This?
1. Call it what it is—SIN. When Jesus ministered to the woman of Samaria, he told her to call her husband to receive the living water He would give them. She replied, “I have no husband.” Jesus said, “You have spoken well—you have told the truth. You have had five husbands, and the man you’re living with is not your husband. You are living in sin” (John 4). Jesus called living together sin. So should we.
2. When you are set free, don’t pick it back up! The Pharisees brought a woman caught in adultery to Jesus, wanting to stone her according to the law of Moses. Jesus did not excuse her sin, but He extended forgiveness and grace to her without ignoring the law. Brilliantly, He stooped down and wrote in the sand (probably their individual sins according to the 10 Commandments), and said: “Let him who is without sin first cast a stone.” When they were convicted and left one by one, Jesus said to her: “Has no one condemned you?” When she replied there was no one, He said: “Neither do I condemn you. Go, and sin no more.” (Jn.8:1-11).
Jesus was cracking open the door of grace with forgiveness and saving her from the death penalty. Today, some err, not knowing the meaning of condemnation. They take Jesus’ words “Neither do I condemn you” and conclude, “You can’t judge me!” But the Greek term refers to passing sentence on a person, in this case, the death penalty: “Neither do I pass the death penalty of stoning on you.” Jesus rightly judged her adultery as sin, and commanded her not to return to her sinful relationship.
Habitual sin has consequences, according to what Jesus told the cripple who lay at the pool of Bethesda waiting for the waters to be clustered by an angel, and hoping to be the first to get in and be healed. Jesus point blank asked him, “Do you want to be made whole?” Obviously, he wanted to be healed—that’s why he was there. But Jesus was speaking of more than physical healing, that is, being “made whole spirit, soul, and body” (1Thes.5:23). After Jesus healed him, He said: “Go, and sin no more lest a worse thing come upon you” (Jn.5:14).
Sin opens the door for the enemy to attack us. It’s not God punishing us—but the enemy taking the advantage we give to him when we willfully sin. “Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherein Christ has made you free, and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage” (Gal.5:1). Get free and stay free! Lay it aside and don’t pick it up again! “Whom the Son sets free is free indeed” (Jn.8:36). Paul wrote in Ephesians 4:27: “Neither give place to the devil. Let him that stole steal no more.” Let him that had an habitual sin of lying, lie no more. Fornicate no more—heterosexual or homosexual. Drink no more. Get high on drugs no more…
How To Sin Proof Your Life
Parents of infants and toddlers must childproof their homes to protect their children from harm. Electrical sockets must be covered. Cabinets with hazardous materials need door locks. Heavy objects that can topple over, like bookcases and TVs, must be secured to the wall. Fences and play yards must be put up outdoors. In like manner, we must sin proof our lives. Scripture tells us how:
“Make no provision for the flesh to fulfill the lusts thereof” (Rom.13:14). You must be proactive in removing yourself from all situations that open the door for you to fall into temptation and sin. You can’t hang with those who pull you down into sin. If you had a problem with alcohol or drugs before you were saved, stay away from parties and places where this is going on. If you had sexual partners before you were saved who are still trying to get with you, you cannot remain friends with them. You have to cut ties!
“Flee fornication!” (1Cor.6:18). If you were living together in sin before you got saved, you can’t live there anymore—someone has to leave. I don’t buy the line: “We are just friends. We’re not sleeping together.” You are making provision, and when you’re in a vulnerable state, you will be tempted. You are not strong enough to play around with temptation. I know people who insisted: “But we are not having sex.” Do they seriously think people will believe that? Living together with an old lover, or a new Christian guy or gal, violates Scripture: “Abstain from all appearance of evil” (1Thes.5:22). “Let not your good be evil spoken of” (Rom.14:16). These two verses do not allow a Christian to say, “I don’t care what people think,” especially if you are in ministry. You are accountable to live and act in a way that does not bring reproach on the Gospel and the name of Jesus.
James 3:1: “My brethren, be not many masters, knowing that we shall receive a greater condemnation.” The Greek term for masters is didaskalos and indicates a teacher of the Scriptures engaged in teaching others. The teacher’s condemnation is greater than others, because having professed to have clear knowledge of the duty of the Word, he is the more bound to obey it. James said “we” because he knew he would one day stand before the divine Judge to give an account for his teaching.
“For this is the will of God for you that you should abstain from fornication…” This includes all sex outside of marriage. “That every one of you should know how to possess his vessel in sanctification and honor” (1Thes.4:3-5). Sanctification means purity and celibacy for unmarried. Honor is to respect your body as the temple of God. There is a Hebrew idiom for “possess one’s vessel” meaning to possess a woman sexually. There is also an inference to homosexuality as described in Romans One: “Wherefore God gave them up to uncleanness through the lusts of their own bodies, to dishonor their own bodies between themselves” (v.24).
“Dearly beloved, I beseech you…. Abstain from fleshly lusts that war against the soul” (2Pet.2:11). You and I have to take every step and prevention to sin-proof our lives. If you are single—flee situations that put you in a position to be tempted sexually. If you’re married—take steps to affair-proof your marriage. No one plans to have an affair when they marry. But not everyone plans not to have an affair by presetting boundaries.
“Wherefore, come out from among them, says the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing, and I will receive you” (2Cor.6:17).
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