WIN AGAINST SIN (Part 2)

Walking in the light involves following Christ’s example and walk as He walked—1 John 2:6—“Those who say they live in God should live their lives as Jesus did.” The key statement here is “as Jesus did.” We are to walk in the light as Jesus did by living here on earth the way Jesus lived when He was here, and the way He is right now in heaven. As Christ-followers we are to look to Jesus Christ as the one great Example of the kind of life we should live.

To win against sin you must abide in Christ who is the sacrifice for your sins and the advocate who represents you before God for He is the perfect pattern for your daily life (1 John 2:1a-2). To abide in Christ means to depend completely on Him for all that you need in order to live for Him and serve Him. It is a living relationship. When He lives His life through you, you are able to follow His example and walk as He walked. Paul said it like this in Galatians 2:20, “It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me.” Christ lives out His life through you by the power of His Spirit, who lives within your body. To walk in the light is to walk in the Spirit and not fulfill the desires of the flesh.
God has made provisions for you to conquer sin. You can never lose or change the sin nature that you were born with—1 John 1:8—“If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.” But you don’t have to obey sin’s desires. As you walk in the light and see sin as it actually is, you will hate it and turn from it. And if you sin, you immediately confess it to God and claim His cleansing grace. When you depend on the power of the indwelling Spirit, you abide in Christ and walk as he walked.

This all begins with openness and honesty before God and men. The minute you start being an actor and begin to pretend in order to impress others, you step out of the light and into the shadows of sin. Oh, what a tangled web we weave when first we practice to deceive! —Sir Walter Scott
For your life to be real it cannot be built on things that are deceptive. Before you can walk in the light, you must know yourself and accept yourself and yield yourself to God. You are just being foolish if you try to deceive others because God already knows what you really are!

Life is much easier and happier when you walk in the light because you live to please only one Person—God. If you live to please yourself and God, you are trying to serve two masters, and that never works. If you live to please others you will always be in trouble because no two people will agree on everything. You’ll just get caught in the middle. Walk in the light. You’ll please God, simplify your goals, unify your life, give yourself a sense of peace and be on your way to winning against sin.

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