Putting Away Sinful Habits
By
Shelby
G. Floyd
In 1 Corinthians the apostle Paul wrote words to some
Christian people who had come from very immoral backgrounds. They had done just
about everything named in the Gentile world, but had been baptized into Christ.
Paul told them to leave their former manner of life because now they were
Christian people. He said,
“Know ye not that the
unrighteous shall not inherit the
I appeal to all who are Christian people. Maybe you have done things in
the past mentioned above. If you have been baptized into Christ, you should do
those things no longer. Paul said, “Such were some of you.” In other
words, you did those things in times past, but can no longer do them and be
consistent with the doctrine of Christ. Why? You have been washed in the waters
of baptism. You have been sanctified by the name of Jesus Christ. The Spirit of
God has justified you. Is it consistent for a washed, sanctified, justified
person to drink alcoholic beverages? No! Nor is it consistent to do any of the
other sinful things that might previously have characterized his life.
I especially appeal to those in their teenage years. The Devil is trying
to work on you and tempt you to drink alcoholic beverages. He uses every
avenue, every means and every media to try to get you away from serving God and
to cause you to lose your spiritual influence. If somebody tries to get you to
take a drink, cry out and say, “No, there is death in the pot! There is death
in the bottle and I will not destroy my soul, my body and my influence.”
The Bible
tells us that our body is the temple of the Holy Spirit. (1 Cor. 6) The Bible says that if we destroy our body that is
the temple of the Holy Spirit, then God will destroy us. Let us not think of
our bodies as receptacles for strong drink, cigarettes, drugs and things of
that nature. Let us instead tell ourselves, “I will keep my body as healthy as
I can. It is a gift from God and I will not mistreat it. I will not put poison
into it. I will try to stay as healthy as I can so I will have good years and
good influence to serve God and our Lord Jesus Christ.” This is the way we
ought to think. Copyright © 2007