When a person drifts in the context of a sound and healthy church—a church in which very many people are not drifting, but are being nourished and fed—the reason that person is drifting is the direct result of not dealing with sin. And in the Scriptures, dealing with sin is not the same thing as managing or controlling it, or keeping it somewhat subdued and out of sight. No, the scriptural response to sin is always death—mortification.
You can live in the middle of a crowd of people who are mortifying their sins, and this unfortunately has no impact on your sins. If ten people sitting around you confess their sins heartily, and you do not, then you get no benefit from what they have done. There is no benefit unless and until you imitate them. And if you do this for any length of time, then outside pressures will ensure that you start to drift. When you start to drift, you will then start making excuses to cover for your drift.
So guarding yourself begins with understanding mortification, and there are three kinds of mortification that must be grasped. When a person is first converted to Christ, when they first get saved, the first mortification is done for them. “And they that are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts” (Gal. 5:24). If you really belong to Jesus, there has been a definitive change from the old life to the new. The old man is dead.
The second kind of mortification is when a true Christian definitively puts to death certain spiritual weeds that have grown up knee high in his spiritual garden. This is what Paul tells the Colossians to do. “Mortify therefore your members which are upon the earth; fornication, uncleanness, inordinate affection, evil concupiscence, and covetousness, which is idolatry” (Col. 3:5). The tense here indicates that this mortification is an over and done sort of thing. If your garden is full of knee high weeds, you do not phase them out over the summer.
The third kind is a daily operation. “For if ye live after the flesh, ye shall die: but if ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live” (Rom. 8:13). To continue the image of weeding the garden, this is also an exercise in pulling up weeds, killing them. But you are doing it every morning at 6 am, and all the weeds are the size of your thumbnail.
So, if you are truly converted, if you uproot significant sins, and if you are mortifying the small ones daily—drifting will not even occur to you.
Encouraging. Thanks.
Problem is these days, in regard to “healthy churches”…it’s more like there are one or two unshifting people in the context of churches. Few churches are boldly dealing with sin or are redefining it. “You can live in the middle of a crowd of people who are mortifying their sins, and this unfortunately has no impact on your sins.” That’s what’s so discouraging…as with society, so with churches…”we live in a crowd of people who are not mortifying their sins, and this unfortunately has an impact on our sins.” Apart from that conundrum, I do feel better with this post.… Read more »
We should all have vegetable gardens on our back yards if for no other reason than to have a tangible analogy of our spiritual condition. Pulling weeds is good.
I’ve done my fair share of weeding. It’s hard work and you never can really get all the root, so the weeds just come right back! Thank the Lord I have Jesus doing my weeding! He miraculously gets out every bit of root and replaces the weeds with the fruit of the Spirit rather than the fruit of my own tainted goodness. All glory to God our King and Savior!