Our Scripture meditation is based on Romans 6:12-13 from next week’s Epistle Reading, the Fourth Sunday after Pentecost. For a meditation on the Gospel Lesson click HERE.
[12] Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, to make you obey its passions. [13] Do not present your members to sin as instruments for unrighteousness, but present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life, and your members to God as instruments for righteousness.
The Apostle Paul’s observation in this passage is deeply disconcerting: We are at risk for being controled by sin. This is yet another reminder that we are not only saved by God’s grace, but live by God’s grace.
Paul spells out his concern in verse 12. Paul is addressing sins of the “body” or the flesh. Our desire to misuse or abuse food or drugs or sensual experiences can ultimately make us “obey its passions.”
To help us address sins of the body, Paul reminds us that God has brought us from death to life. Spiritually dead people, without faith in Christ, cannot get free from such desires. We now have life in Christ, so we know we are delivered from death to life. In other words, we now live in God’s grace.
God has shifted our focus: Instead of focusing on our own desires, we focus on God’s desires for us. This applies to how we use our bodies. We understand that our bodies are not our own. (1 Corinthians 6:19-20) We are offering out bodies to God as part of our living in Christ.
This shift, from focusing on our desires to focusing on God’s desires, draws us away from these sins of passion.
Thanks be to God for lives lived under His grace!
Until next week, the Lord bless and guide.
Kevin Wilson 360 