Titus 3:10, 11
If someone is in a “Catch 22” then they can’t get ahead no matter how hard they try. Every action will only worsen the problem, while inaction is often not an option. This principle applies in life as well as in the spirit realm, where believers want to be victorious but do not always know how to bring it about.
Most people in the church would tell you that to avoid living in sin you should memorize God’s laws and principles. The common knowledge is that if God’s law is right and you are wrong, then you should get to know what is right so that you will not be wrong, but that assumes that knowledge of the law leads to righteousness. Paul said the opposite: “…for by the law is the knowledge of sin” (Romans 3:20).
What you dwell on eventually determines who you are. If you concentrate on one thing day and night, aiming all of your efforts at that, it begins to shape your lifestyle and the decisions that you make. When you dwell on the law and how to keep it, you become more and more knowledgeable about sin, while learning nothing about how to avoid it.
The Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil is to blame for this phenomenon. We know what is right and wrong but that tree provided us with no ability to stop the bad and start the good. The tree that we need was standing nearby; the Tree of Life. Fortunately for us, Jesus died on a tree and became our perpetual Life, so that we do not live by our knowledge of good and evil, but by His finished work.
Paul told Titus that if someone is given an admonition about what the effects of their lifestyle will be, and they still continue to live therein, warn them again and then part ways with them. This is not a condemnation of their soul but of their lifestyle, noting that it will bring ill-repute to the church and to the brethren while causing heartache for the man himself. After teaching us how to deal with the man, Paul gets to the root of the problem, explaining to us what is wrong with the man.
“Knowing that he that is such is subverted, and sinneth, being condemned of himself” (Titus 3:11).
“Subverted” is another word for “perverted” or “to change for the worse”. Notice what causes the man to live in this perversion and sin; “being condemned of himself”. The text does not say that God condemns him, for Romans 8:1 tells us that this is not possible for those who are in Christ Jesus. We can’t say for sure that the man in Titus is a brother, for Paul does not specify, but it is natural to assume as much since he has been talking about things that “are good and profitable unto men” (Titus 3:8).
When you condemn yourself, the natural course of events becomes sin then perversion. Your condemnation of yourself causes you to lose hope and dwell under a weight of guilt. Sin is soon to follow as you have opened the door for the enemy to attack you, having removed the finished work of Jesus Christ. Repeated sin leads to perversion, where eventually, even the most educated Christian begins to grow hard against the gentle voice of the Savior, turning wholly to a sinful lifestyle.
If condemnation leads you to sin then the lack of condemnation will lead you to righteousness. See yourself as forgiven and never condemned and you will see the weights and the sins fall off in Jesus’ mighty name!
If someone is in a “Catch 22” then they can’t get ahead no matter how hard they try. Every action will only worsen the problem, while inaction is often not an option. This principle applies in life as well as in the spirit realm, where believers want to be victorious but do not always know how to bring it about.
Most people in the church would tell you that to avoid living in sin you should memorize God’s laws and principles. The common knowledge is that if God’s law is right and you are wrong, then you should get to know what is right so that you will not be wrong, but that assumes that knowledge of the law leads to righteousness. Paul said the opposite: “…for by the law is the knowledge of sin” (Romans 3:20).
What you dwell on eventually determines who you are. If you concentrate on one thing day and night, aiming all of your efforts at that, it begins to shape your lifestyle and the decisions that you make. When you dwell on the law and how to keep it, you become more and more knowledgeable about sin, while learning nothing about how to avoid it.
The Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil is to blame for this phenomenon. We know what is right and wrong but that tree provided us with no ability to stop the bad and start the good. The tree that we need was standing nearby; the Tree of Life. Fortunately for us, Jesus died on a tree and became our perpetual Life, so that we do not live by our knowledge of good and evil, but by His finished work.
Paul told Titus that if someone is given an admonition about what the effects of their lifestyle will be, and they still continue to live therein, warn them again and then part ways with them. This is not a condemnation of their soul but of their lifestyle, noting that it will bring ill-repute to the church and to the brethren while causing heartache for the man himself. After teaching us how to deal with the man, Paul gets to the root of the problem, explaining to us what is wrong with the man.
“Knowing that he that is such is subverted, and sinneth, being condemned of himself” (Titus 3:11).
“Subverted” is another word for “perverted” or “to change for the worse”. Notice what causes the man to live in this perversion and sin; “being condemned of himself”. The text does not say that God condemns him, for Romans 8:1 tells us that this is not possible for those who are in Christ Jesus. We can’t say for sure that the man in Titus is a brother, for Paul does not specify, but it is natural to assume as much since he has been talking about things that “are good and profitable unto men” (Titus 3:8).
When you condemn yourself, the natural course of events becomes sin then perversion. Your condemnation of yourself causes you to lose hope and dwell under a weight of guilt. Sin is soon to follow as you have opened the door for the enemy to attack you, having removed the finished work of Jesus Christ. Repeated sin leads to perversion, where eventually, even the most educated Christian begins to grow hard against the gentle voice of the Savior, turning wholly to a sinful lifestyle.
If condemnation leads you to sin then the lack of condemnation will lead you to righteousness. See yourself as forgiven and never condemned and you will see the weights and the sins fall off in Jesus’ mighty name!
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