We all have dark deeds in our past. Clothe yourself in Jesus.
8 Owe nothing to anyone—except for your obligation to love one another. If you love your neighbor, you will fulfill the requirements of God’s law. 9 For the commandments say, “You must not commit adultery. You must not murder. You must not steal. You must not covet.” These—and other such commandments—are summed up in this one commandment: “Love your neighbor as yourself.” 10 Love does no wrong to others, so love fulfills the requirements of God’s law.
11 This is all the more urgent, for you know how late it is; time is running out. Wake up, for our salvation is nearer now than when we first believed. 12 The night is almost gone; the day of salvation will soon be here. So remove your dark deeds like dirty clothes, and put on the shining armor of right living. 13 Because we belong to the day, we must live decent lives for all to see. Don’t participate in the darkness of wild parties and drunkenness, or in sexual promiscuity and immoral living, or in quarreling and jealousy. 14 Instead, clothe yourself with the presence of the Lord Jesus Christ. And don’t let yourself think about ways to indulge your evil desires.
Romans 13:8-14
Paul urges us to wake up for our salvation is nearer than when we first believed.
We are not guaranteed a tomorrow. And we cannot get back yesterday. All we have is this moment right now. Living holy lives requires one thing – keeping our focus on Jesus. When we keep our focus on Jesus, we cannot help but live pleasing lives in our Father’s eyes. Let’s look more closely at these words of instruction from Paul.
Owe nothing to no one. If we borrowed something from someone, we need to repay them. The only thing we should owe is love. This is our instruction. Live in love. When our focus is on Jesus, we are focused on love because He is love (1 John 4:8). Paul goes on to say in verse 10 that love does no wrong and it fulfills the requirements of God’s law.
Remove your dark deeds like dirty clothes.
Paul isn’t pulling any punches here. He’s urging people to live in the light. When we choose to remain hidden in darkness, we remain in shame and guilt which is not the life God intends for us to have. Jesus came to remove darkness from our lives. He wants to clothe us in His righteousness. In Genesis, we see a preview of how He will eventually clothe us through sacrifice.
8 When the cool evening breezes were blowing, the man and his wife heard the Lord God walking about in the garden. So they hid from the Lord God among the trees. 9 Then the Lord God called to the man, “Where are you?”
10 He replied, “I heard you walking in the garden, so I hid. I was afraid because I was naked.”
11 “Who told you that you were naked?” the Lord God asked. “Have you eaten from the tree whose fruit I commanded you not to eat?”
Genesis 3:8-11
21 And the Lord God made clothing from animal skins for Adam and his wife.
Genesis 3:21
When Adam and Eve fell into sin, they were suddenly aware of their nakedness and their shame.
They were afraid and hid from God. I imagine this made God very sad when they hid from Him. He still loved them immensely and He sacrificed an animal to make clothes for them. He clothed them to hide their shame. This was a foreshadow of how Jesus came to clothe us in righteousness permanently. Look at verse Romans 13:14 above. Clothe yourself with the presence of the Lord Jesus Christ. Let Jesus become the strength you need to avoid temptation.
12 If you think you are standing strong, be careful not to fall. 13 The temptations in your life are no different from what others experience. And God is faithful. He will not allow the temptation to be more than you can stand. When you are tempted, he will show you a way out so that you can endure.
1 Corinthians 10:12-13
Jesus is our strength in our weakness.
Paul tells us in these two verses in First Corinthians to be careful not to fall when we think we are standing strong. We are incapable of standing strong in our own flesh. When we think we are standing strong, we will fall. It’s inevitable. Reading on to the next verse, what a relief to know that God is faithful and that He will not allow any temptation to be more than we can stand. But this is only when we stand in His strength. He is the way out.
We see people fall at times. How do we react when this happens? Hopefully we are each showing the love of Jesus by not sharing in gossip, even if we are sharing under the pretense of asking for prayer. Social media can be a good tool if used correctly but it can be pure evil and destructive if used incorrectly. We each have temptations in our lives. We each have things in our past we are not proud of and things we would not want spread among family, friends and strangers. When we see this happening in another person’s life, we have the power to step up and do what Jesus does.
Jesus loves unconditionally.
Jesus shows us over and over again in His Word how to love others. It is not our place to judge another person’s sin. It is our place to offer love and compassion. Our world is filled with too many people who delight when another person falls into shame. Social media is used to bully and kick those who have fallen. If those of us who profess Jesus Christ as our Savior stand strong against this bullying and shaming, we can make a change. When we live transformed lives, we can bring about transformation in our little corner of the world.
Stay in the Light and the Love always,
Eva
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