Sunday 2 Jul 2023

July 2: Romans 6:15-18

Key Verse: Romans 6:15
What then? Shall we sin because we are not under the law but under grace? By no means!

Devotion:
What is all this talk about being a slave – didn’t we outlaw the slave trade? You may look at verses like this and think they are archaic and irrelevant nowadays, but it is not the human tyrant vs human slave we are talking here; rather this is the way of life which we lead because of the company we keep. Does this mean if we just stick with church people we will be ok? No, unfortunately not because we can all get trapped into certain ways of life...

When we do certain thing in our lives we get used to doing things that way and the more we do them the more we plan to do them in the future until it becomes a way of life because we don’t think of anything different. This is being a slave to that way of life and this is the slavery being talked about here. This could be what we call temptation to do sins if they are sinful things we are practising.

When I was young I ventured into a very short time at selling encyclopedias. They promised great rewards and on paper it looked like I could earn a reasonable wage. The people trying to teach us the way of selling these books was very good at doing what they said and tried to convince me it was the right way of doing things. But the first visit into an actual home and I had to give that up before I sold anything. They were not being honest with customers and they were trying to get them to take loans for something which would ultimately sit on the shelf most of the time; and they were targetting people in low income areas! This was their way of life and I could not support it!

When we get used to doing the wrong things, we don’t see it as wrong any more. This is being a slave to the wrong thing! We should be aiming at doing what God wants of us so we become a slave of doing the right thing all the time...

Points to Ponder:
What do you do most of the time?

Is it what God would want you to do?