“Let him who steals steal no more.” Eph.4:28 MEV

At last an easy one for most of us Christians. Most of us do not steal so on that imperative we are golden. Of course not perfectly so, we are not perfect but we can be substantially pure in this regard. Who among us has not borrowed a pen and failed to return it? Or some other petty thief, I’m am not condoning it, we should never steal anything, strive to be perfect in this regard. But if you slip up repent of it, ask God for forgiveness and move on.

But this post is not about stealing per say, after all like I said for the most part and for most of us it is an easy one. What I want to talk about is the principle that the Apostle is trying to communicate. Is he only concerned about the thief? No. Of course not, would he go on to say its okay to swear, brag, fornicate, be greedy, lust, and so on just as long as you stop stealing?!  If you stop stealing you are golden, all other sins we just won’t talk about? 

In the Church we don’t want people to be stealing, and we don’t want them to be committing adultery, to fornicate, to view pornography, to be angry, critical, to think to highly of themselves or too lowly of themselves, etc. It would be really nice if we were all perfect in every way, like Mary Poppins, but then you would have to leave because you would be the one apple who spoils the whole barrel.

But this post is also not about us being accepting of others, I will let others talk about such things, that subject is  too easy for me, my job is to talk about the hard things.

Let him who views pornography and pleasures him/her self do so no more. And on and on I could go with the sins that so easily beset us. It is the sin that gets you the most that should be your biggest concern. Why try to clean up your life by cleaning out the little sins like stealing when all along you know it is a easy one. Like my brother says, “easy peasy lemon squeezey”. Oh wow, Jesus is really proud of you now. You don’t steal, you recycle, you throw the trash in the garbage, you don’t smoke, you don’t drink too much, you don’t swear too terribly much. Look at you!

Are you consumed with greed? Are you harboring unforgiveness and hatred in your heart. In other words what is the biggie in your life? I’m not going to go over a long list of sins, I don’t need to just think for a moment about the one sin that troubles you the most.

Got it? Okay now get rid of it, do it today. Why wait, why keep sinning against the God you claim you love and obey? I will tell you why, it is because you can’t. You are powerless to do so, you are a slave to that one sin, maybe more sins but there is at least one the big one that you can’t get rid of because you are a slave to it.

Now at this point I am tempted to jump down your throat and scream at you to repent. I am a John the Baptist type, I am sorry but that is who God made me, and the world needs another John the Baptist because John understood that unless we successfully repent we will most certainly perish. Remember what he said about the axe that is already laying beside the root of the tree ready to cut it down if it didn’t produce fruit. 

And like John, I too understand, I do. I understand perfectly, most Christian leaders don’t. And I am frustrated and I don’t know what to do. Should I just stand by and see countless thousands of confessing Christians perish because they think they can put one arm around their blessed Savior and the other around their favorite sin and get away with it?

 I am not going to jump down your throat, I love you too much to do that. But let me ask you something, it you are on the wrong path, you know the broad road that leads to destruction, would you want our Savior to take you out behind the shed and whip you until your back in nothing but bloody meat and speak sternly to you in order to bump you off that road that leads straight to hell or would you rather have him smile on you put his arms around you and take you out to lunch and have a friendly chat with you. And then the very next day take your life and send you to hell. Wouldn’t you say, “why didn’t you warn me?” I am trying to warn those who need to be warned, that is all I am doing.

 Learn to live a righteous life by faith, that is what the great Apostle Paul said and I will leave it at that. 

Now may the Lord bless you and keep you, may he make his face to shine on you and be gracious to you, may he lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace. Amen.