March 5
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ACTS THAT LEAD TO IDOLATRY
5 Therefore, treat the parts of your earthly body as dead to sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and greed, which amounts to idolatry. 6 For it is because of these things that the wrath of God is coming upon the sons of disobedience, 7 and in them you also once walked, when you were living in them. – Colossians 3:5-7
________________________________________In this part of his letter, Paul tells the Colossians to be dead to the following acts that lead to idolatry:
1. Sexual immorality -the word most often translated “sexual immorality” is porneia. This word is also translated as “whoredom,” “fornication,” and “idolatry.” It means “a surrendering of sexual purity,” and it is primarily used with premarital sexual relations. From this Greek word we get the English word pornography, stemming from the concept of “selling off.” Sexual immorality is the “selling off” of sexual purity and involves any type of sexual expression outside the boundaries of a biblically defined marriage relationship
2. Impurity- Impurity is the condition of being defiled in some sense. The word impurity can also refer to the contaminant itself: an unwanted substance that makes something unclean. The concepts of purity and impurity are important in the Bible’s presentation of holiness. Impurity in Greek is “akatharsia”, which means “defiled, foul, ceremonially unfit.” It connotes actions that render a person unfit to enter God’s presence.
3. Passion-also translated as “lust or inordinate affection.” These are inappropriate cravings which distract us from the things that are above and lead us to commit the sins of immorality and impurity.
4. Evil desire- likely includes wanting things which are wrong, whether sexual or material things.
5. Greed -also called covetousness is a strong and selfish desire to have more of something, most often money or power.
Paul vehemently warns the believers to be stripped off from these acts that brings about the wrath of God to those who commit these sinful acts.
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REFLECTION
• Which of these sins have you struggled in the past before you were a believer?
• How has God transformed you from these idolatrous acts when you believed?