Don’t Be a Sippin’ Saint Gloria Copeland Now I have written unto you not to keep company, if any man that is called a brother be a fornicator, or covetous, or an idolator, or a railer, or a drunkard, or an extortioner. – 1 Corinthians 5:11 Honestly, I’m shocked at how some Christians live. When I see believers who go to church on Sunday, then live like the world the rest of the week, it disturbs me. Ken and I haven’t been raised spiritually like that. Our spiritual parents did not train us that way. They live what they preach. The people we run with act the same all the time. When we take off on our motorcycles, we might look like the world with our helmets and our leathers on, but we praise God, talk faith and act in love just like we do when we’re preaching at a convention. If your friends don’t do that, you need to find some new friends. If your friends are worldly, you need to separate yourself from them because they’ll pull you down to their level. Now it’s good to go to sinners and bring them the gospel. But the Scriptures tell us not to have ongoing fellowship with them. They’ll start influencing you toward their unholy way of thinking. Pretty soon, you’ll be talking the way they talk and watching the television shows and the movies they watch. Next thing you know, you’ll be doing everything else they’re doing too. We’ve been set apart for God’s sacred use! We don’t need to be watching television sitcoms that make light of immorality. Those programs are intended to desensitize people to sin. Satan takes his best shots in the entertainment industry. I realize some people will argue about that. But the Bible warns us that we’re not to be like the children of Israel when they indulged in the sinful ways of the world (1 Corinthians 10). Don’t play around like the people in the world do. It will get you in trouble. (They are already in trouble.) You might start out doing something on a small scale. You might indulge in just a little glass of wine after dinner now and then. You might become a “sippin’ saint.” “Well, Gloria, I don’t think it will lead to anything else.” Maybe not, but you have to admit that it is certainly an open door. What’s more, compromising ourselves for something as silly as a drink is foolishness. Why would we want something like that in our way when we can walk in the glory of God? If you think I’m being legalistic, think again. There is nothing legalistic about holiness. In fact, under the Law, holiness is totally unattainable. That’s because holiness doesn’t come by simply observing outward rules or laws. Holiness comes as the result of the work of grace God does in our hearts! It manifests in our lives as we live out what, by grace, God has put within us. So don’t be a sippin’ saint. Be a doer of the Word. Live a life of holiness. Scripture Reading: 1 Corinthians 5:11; 2 Corinthians 6:14-18, 7:1
Posted on: Tue, 02 Jul 2013 10:48:39 +0000
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