My Responsible Life

Tuesday, January 9, 2018

1st Corinthians 6:12: “All things are lawful for me” but not everything is beneficial. “All things are lawful for me”–but I will not be controlled by anything.

I have heard it said, "Your life has no limits. You can do anything that you put your mind to."

In many ways, there is nothing wrong with what's above. God gave to us minds, abilities, skills, and the like to do what we would like. God gave us those abilities and and skills to benefit others and glorify Him. What ends up being wrong is the ways it is misapplied.

We turn what God says through St. Paul into selfish freedom. "I can do what I want. As long as I'm not hurting anyone, it shouldn't matter to God or anyone else what I do. After all, I have forgiveness." What we have done, is turn our freedom from sin into sin.

Let's read further. Is our selfish actions beneficial to any one else? Is it beneficial even to us? Is gratifying our sinful urges benefiting even me? No it isn't. It's leading us down a path to hell where all the self indulgent people end up.

So by means of grace and forgiveness, that is Jesus and what He did, we let go of all self indulgence. We live by means of the Holy Spirit as people being responsible to God and for our ourselves. We live as people who will not allow our sin, our sinful nature, and the influence of Satan to control our lives. We will live by means of grace and forgiveness in the great power of God the Holy Spirit. Being free means being responsible because our freedom is based on what Jesus did for us. Holy Spirit, lead us to responsibly live the lives Jesus gave, Amen!