Kill the Spider - Himalayan Heights – May 7 Readings: Colossians 3:5-7 – Kill Lust and Greed

 Colossians 3:1-17 A Primer in Christian Living

All Scripture is God-breathed and useful, but there are some Scriptures that we can consider the Himalayan mountaintops of the Bible. In the next few months, we will be looking at a series of great texts that inspire and move us - the "Himalayan Heights" of God's Word.

Today's Reading:  Colossians 3:1-17

Colossians 3:1-17 is a step by step guide to Christian living. It is a series of 12 commands, each of which builds on the previous one, laying out how we should live as followers of Jesus Christ. Each day, read the entire 17 verses, then meditate on the verse or verses that are the focus passage.

5 Therefore, put to death what belongs to your earthly nature: sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desire, and greed, which is idolatry. 6 Because of these, God’s wrath is coming upon the disobedient, 7 and you once walked in these things when you were living in them.

NOTES: Today, we being phase 2 (Out with the old, in with the New) of the process of Successful Christian Living, with the third command of twelve. this section instructs us to deal with the sin in our lives and to allow God to replace it with his righteousness.

Through the Bible Readings: 2 Samuel 3-4, Luke 22:31–46, Psalm 58:1–4, Proverbs 12:15-16

If you wish to read through the Bible in a year, follow these readings. 

Devotional: Kill the Spider 

In prayer time at the church, there was a pious old man who would prayer every week, saying in a tremulous voice, "Lord, clean out the cobwebs of my heart." Week after week, he blessed the congregation with his prayer. One week, after he prayed for God to clean the cobwebs from his heart, a little girl piped up in the back, "God, kill that spider."

Great old story, almost certainly fiction, but it makes a needed point. Too often, we flirt with sins and ask God to deal with the consequences of those sins. "Clean the cobwebs, Lord." The Bible instructs us to take a much more aggressive view toward our sin, especially certain sins. In verse 5 we see the third command in this passage, "put to death what belongs to your earthly nature." God does not tell us simply to sweep our souls for cobwebs, but to kill the spiders of sin.

Though there are five specific sins listed in verse 5, there are actually only 2 spiders that must be killed. Some would argue, in fact, that there is only one. The first four words are all clearly related to sexual sin, the most powerful physical desire of the human body. We are told today that sexual behavior is inconsequential, that God does not care how we behave morally, but this simply does not square up with the biblical evidence.  Sexual immorality speaks to the physical act of sex outside of marriage, while impurity, lust, and evil desire extend sexual sin to the heart. Some argue that greed is also, in context, a desire for sexual conquest, but it more likely refers to materialism and the love of money, the second spider that must be killed.

The Bible makes it clear that immorality and greed not only offend God, but they bring devastating consequences to our lives. Proverbs tells how sexual immorality destroys the life of the sinner and 1 Timothy 6 reminds us that the love of money shipwrecks our lives. These are venomous spiders that cannot be allowed to live in our souls and weave their webs.

There is only one appropriate way to deal with sexual sin and greed. Paul tells Timothy to "flee youthful lusts" and commanded the Corinthians to "flee sexual immorality." (1 Corinthians 6:18). He did not tell them to fight sexual temptation, but to flee from it. Run away! Here, in Colossians 35, he includes greed with immorality and commands us to kill it! Put it to death.

In Christ, our sin has been crucified and when we walk in the power of the Holy Spirit, we can deal forcefully with these sins. Kill these spiders, my friends. Do not let them grow in your heart and build their webs.

Father, destroy the power of lust and greed in my heart, so that my only desire is for you and my treasure is Christ. 

Think and Pray:

Which attitude most accurately describes how you deal with sin? Do you "clean the cobwebs" or "kill the spider?"
Are you allowing sexual immorality, impurity, and lust to have a place in your heart?
Are you allowing greed to pollute and shipwreck your soul?