Obtaining Victory Over Sin

I Thessalonians 5:22-24

“Abstain from all appearance of evil. And the very God of peace sanctify you wholly; and I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.” (I Thessalonians 5:22-23)

To abstain is to voluntarily refrain from a behavior. There are a number of things that t Christian should abstain from because they have serious consequences for our spiritual life. It is God’s will that our life be pure and dedicated to him. Some of these things are listed in the following verses.

“For this is the will of God, even your sanctification, that ye should abstain from fornication: That every one of you should know how to possess his vessel in sanctification and honour;” (I Thessalonians 4:3-4)

“Dearly beloved, I beseech you as strangers and pilgrims, abstain from fleshly lusts, which war against the soul;” (I Peter 2:11)

“For it seemed good to the Holy Ghost, and to us, to lay upon you no greater burden than these necessary things; That ye abstain from meats offered to idols, and from blood, and from things strangled, and from fornication: from which if ye keep yourselves, ye shall do well. Fare ye well.” (Acts 15:28-29)

“For the love of money is the root of all evil: which while some coveted after, they have erred from the faith, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows. But thou, O man of God, flee these things; and follow after righteousness, godliness, faith, love, patience, meekness.” (I Timothy 6:10-11)

Paul instructs that we should go beyond his list to abstain fro everything which gives an appearance of evil for the sake of our testimony. In return God can be counted on to prevent us getting involved in sin. Philippians 4 advises us to allow our self control to be apparent, and God will take care of our thought patterns.

“Let your moderation be known unto all men. The Lord is at hand. Be careful for nothing; but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God. And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.” (Philippians 4:5-7)

We are not to worry about even those thoughts, but rather to focus on the things of God, choosing not to dwell on the evil, but focusing on what God wants, because a Galatians 5:16 tells us, “This I say then, Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh.” While we have a responsibility to choose not to commit sin. we have God’s power to enable us to overcome it. As I Corinthians 10:13 says, “There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man: but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it.”

Our ability to not sin does not depend on our will power, but on our descision to do what pleases God and his faithfulness to uphold our decision. As Paul states here in I Thessalonians 5:24, “Faithful is he that calleth you, who also will do it.“ He restates this in II Thessalonians 3:3’ “But the Lord is faithful, who shall stablish you, and keep you from evil.” When we fall into sin, it is not because of a failure on his part, but because we chose to. He still would have freed us from the sin even though we failed to believe him according to II Timothy 2:13, “If we believe not, yet he abideth faithful: he cannot deny himself.”