Consider these verses:
Galatians 5:19-21 (King James)
19Now the works of the flesh (sins of the flesh) are manifest, which are these; Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness (lewdness), 20Idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance (quarreling, disputes), emulations (jealousies), wrath, strife (selfish ambitions), seditions (divisions, disorder), heresies (distorting the truth), 21Envyings, murders, drunkenness, revelries, and such like: of the which I tell you before, as I have also told you in time past, that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God.
So? What do you think?
“They which DO SUCH THINGS shall NOT inherit the kingdom of God”? Which translates into: We won’t go to heaven if we do any of these things?!?
Oh Man… I do some of those things, yeah I’m not perfect. No I don’t drink. I’m not into witchcraft. I don’t cheat on my hubby. No I’ve never murdered anyone. But wait… ‘murder’ could be considered ‘murdering’ someone’s name. When you talk about someone you can slander their name. Envy? Oh I might have been there before. Strife, jealousy, variance? Maybe at some point or another. Like I said, I’m not perfect.
So what does this mean?
{This is an important verse to me because of my recent past. We were going to a church that preached the “holiness” doctrine. Meaning this: Once you get saved, you should be perfectly holy. IF you sin then there is something wrong with you & you can not possibly be saved. It also taught that WHEN you DO sin… you are no longer saved. You need to repent and once you do repent – you are saved again. So forget about struggles, battles, falls. If you fall to temptation you are UNSAVED. Whew!! That is exhausting just thinking back to it. I guess they didn’t understand sanctification or justification. Sanctification is the process of becoming ‘Christ-like’. The growing process. The process in which the Holy Spirit cleans you up. Prunes your branches. Takes away the bad (works of the flesh) & instills the ‘Fruit of the Spirit’. We won’t be perfectly sanctified until we reach heaven.}
Ok. So where was I?
I am going to focus on the words “they which DO SUCH things”.
First of all this tells us that a person cannot have sin & God at the same time. There are people who think that their lifestyle does not matter. Some people think only their faith matters & not their actions. However, if we have the proper faith in Christ then our actions will match our faith. Now this doesn’t mean that the believer is perfect. None of us are. The bible does not teach sinless perfection.
Now on to the good stuff.
The word “do” in “they which do such things” is the Greek word “prasso” which means “to practice”. This word is a present tense verb. (A continuous action.) The Holy Spirit (through Paul) is speaking of the character of the person. The habitual practice of the person shows their character. The person is either a habitual sinner or a habitual believer. Paul’s statement does not mean that if a believer falls to a sin then he loses his salvation. He is speaking of a habitual continuation in sin with every intention to continue in this lifestyle. A believer is practicing a habitual lifestyle of a believer who slips & falls to a sin. This Greek word for ‘sin’ is a past tense verb. Meaning when we believers commit a sin – it is ONE SIN that we committed. PAST TENSE. It is a one time occurrence that happenED and is over. Not the same Greek word as here in this verse which is a present tense verb meaning continually going on.
God will forgive the individual seeking forgiveness. However this person seeking forgiveness should want these sinful situations to stop. To repent means to turn away from the sin. The person should not be seeking forgiveness just to continue in the sin.
Sin has no place in a believers life. “Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound? God forbid” (Rom. 6:1,2) In other words: shall we continue sinning because God’s grace is big enough to forgive us? God forbid! “How shall we, that are dead to sin, live any longer therein?” (vs.. 2) In other words: Once we get saved we are dead to the sin nature. The sin nature is still IN us, but it has no dominion over us anymore.
To read more on the sin nature & victory over the sin nature read my post "Battles/Struggles & The Sin Nature".
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