4-Letter Word

Hebrews 12:2-4 (NIV)
2Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. 3Consider him who endured such opposition from sinful men, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart. 4In your struggle against sin, you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood.

Wow...think of how many lessons and principles can be extrapolated from this small chunk of scripture. My mind is racing! I'm going to try to focus and make this as brief as I can for the sake of my newly reformed ways of blogging. Let's focus in on verse 4.

How many Christians do we know who are struggling with sin? How many times have we struggled with sin? How can this be? Weren't we saved and delivered from the ignominy of sin altogether when we accepted the redeeming glory of the Cross? Why do so many Christians still struggle with sin then? The problem is found in a simple 4-letter word - with.

The scriptures states that we should struggle against sin, not with it. Why is this so important? What's in this 4-letter word? "With" is defined as: accompanied by; in some particular relation to; characterized by or having. In understanding what the word "with" implies, it becomes clear why Christians shouldn't struggle with sin.

When we accept the gift of grace, we proclaim a breaking of ties with sin, we denounced our relationship with sin, and we come to the realization that we are no longer characterized by sin. We are dead and it is Christ who lives through us! Our lives are now characterized by Christ. For this reason, we have been called to struggle against sin; to be in opposition of and in resistance to sin. Which brings us to the second half of the verse – the importance of resistance.

I dare to say that no one you have ever known has ever resisted anything to the point of shedding blood for it. And yet this is the level of resistance that is expected of us, if need be, when it comes to our struggle against sin. The truth is that we may never have to push resistance to such a severe degree. Most of us need to merely turn our eyes away from the half-naked woman on the billboard or go about or business when casual conversation turns into murmuring. But we must allow our willingness to resist to develop through the Holy Spirit.

God can only grow us through the testing of our faith. And as Dr. Edwin Louis Cole points out in, “The Power of Potential”, all testing is based on resistance. Whatever you give into in life grows stronger, while what you resist grows weaker. YOU MUST RESIST SIN! The Word says to flee its very appearance. Run away if need be. You must make the decision to have no association with sin.

"Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the Devil and he will flee from you" James 4:7 It's time to stop struggling with sin, and start struggling against it. It's through the struggle against sin, total submission to God, that the character of Christ can be developed in our lives.