Contamination

If we are busy trying to build our own kingdom or looking for loopholes in the Word of God to justify doing what we want to do, we need to question the genuineness of our relationship with Jesus. There is one underlying truth that wipes out our selfish desire to get what we want:

I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. And the life that I now live in my body, I live by faith, indeed, by the faithfulness of God’s Son, who loved me and gave himself for me. (Galatians 2:20)

"I no longer live" should bring clarity to our life in this world. It should also be clear that we have died to everything we were, everything we laid claim to, and everything we aspired to be. Now our desire is only Jesus, and obedience to the Father's will. This should be clear to us by now:

My dear friends, since we have these promises, let’s cleanse ourselves from anything that contaminates our body or spirit so that we make our holiness complete in the fear of God. (2 Corinthians 7:1)

The Holy Spirit convicts us of what needs to go and what needs to change after we come to Jesus, but it is up to us to offer it up. It is part of the process and takes the rest of our life, but as the Spirit makes us aware of what needs to go we need to surrender it. This is important at this moment of time because there are people calling themselves Christians who are advocating things of the flesh over the Spirit. They are trying to redefine Christianity to satisfy the demands of the flesh. God cannot be mocked.

The simple question each of us must ask ourselves is if we love Jesus more than anything else, even more than our deepest longings. The Word says to rid ourselves of anything that contaminates. The flesh wants to define this for our own advantage but the Spirit defines it according to the holiness of God. Jesus said, to qualify as his disciples, we have to deny our flesh, take up our spiritual mission and follow his example.

The time has come for us to become serious about our decision, to decide for Jesus and allowed him to be glorified through us no matter the cost. It is time to rise up in the holiness with which he has clothed us. Cleanse yourself from anything that contaminates.