When scripture urges us, even commands us to be perfect, God is speaking of morally perfect. We are not to lie, steal, commit sexual offenses, etc. We still might put the tea kettle on the stove without any water in it, take a wrong turn and get lost while driving, mess up in a thousand different ways. But God expects His sons and daughters to be morally perfect. A person who is perfect in all areas of their life would never misspell a word. When throwing darts they would always hit the bull’s eye. They wouldn’t forget to feed the dog, etc.
Don’t allow anyone to convince you that you cannot live a truly holy life. You can. With God’s help, you can. Once God imparts to you His powerful Holy Spirit there is not a single instance of sin you can point to and tell God, “Now you know I had to commit that sin. I couldn’t help it, so I really don’t need any forgiveness for doing that.”
Satan is good at what he does, and he has a lot of help from the Christian ministry – a lot of help. No, not from all ministers, but from a lot of them.
I have one Bible that I have used a yellow marker to highlight all the verses of scripture in both Old and New Testaments that clearly teach a child of God has the help and ability to obey our Lord’s command to “Go, and sin no more.” That Bible has literally dozens and dozens of texts highlighted in yellow. Do yourself a favor. Get your Bible and as you read it keep a colored marker at hand. Every time you come across a verse of scripture that shows you can have victory over sin in your life highlight that verse. You will find that you are highlighting an awful lot of verses.
The Bible speaks of our “exercising ourselves unto godliness.” It won’t be easy. You’ll have to resist temptation from time to time. You will have to put forth real effort not to go the way of the flesh many times. But you CAN have the victory every time. Memorize I Corinthians 10:13. Believe I Corinthians 10:13. And then act upon I Corinthians 10:13. This one lone verse will then lead you swiftly onto the pathway of holy living. Yes, just one little scripture. Now get to it.
Christ’s Aged Servant (Galatians 1:10-12),
Donald Wiley