The Bible teaches that a person who lives
in pleasure, not necessarily sinful pleasure, is dead while they live.
The following passage of Scripture clearly exposes the false doctrine of Lordship Salvation. Most people are not of faith, that is, not born-again Christians. And of those who are saved, most believers are choked by the cares, riches and pleasures of this earthly life (Luke 8:14). They are spiritually DEAD while they are alive in the flesh.
The apostle Paul makes clear that it is Jesus Christ, Who lives the Christian life through us, and not we of ourselves by keeping the law. Paul said, “the life which I now live in the flesh I live BY THE FAITH OF THE SON OF GOD”:
Galatians 2:20-21, “I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me. I do not frustrate the grace of God: for if righteousness come by the law, then Christ is dead in vain.”
In
other words, every Christian believer ought to walk in the Holy Spirit by
which we are indwelt. We are saved BY FAITH. And likewise, we live the
Christian life BY FAITH, yielding to the Word of God as led by the
indwelling Holy Spirit of God. Those who walk in the flesh, seeking
pleasures and living worldly, the Bible calls “DEAD.” Our churches are
filled with dead people. I see dead people! Christians are asleep to
righteousness, cuddling satanic false Bible versions (which all wrongly
redefine “repentance” to mean “turn
from sins” to be saved).
In our text verse, Paul is addressing the church's responsibility to take care of widows, if they meet certain requirements, including being committed to serve the Lord and are not living for worldly pleasures. Paul stresses the truth that to live in pleasure makes one DEAD spiritually. As born-again believers, who are no longer under the curse of God's law, so that we “CANNOT DO THE THINGS THAT YE WOULD:
Galatians 5:17, “For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit [i.e., capital “S,” Holy Spirit], and the Spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary the one to the other: so that ye cannot do the things that ye would. But if ye be led of the Spirit, ye are not under the law. Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these; Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, Idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, Envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings, 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.”
The indwelling Holy Spirit is “holy,” and He tells us not to do sinful things. So there is a constant battle, a “war” according to 1st Peter 2:11, “Dearly beloved, I beseech you as strangers and pilgrims, abstain from fleshly lusts, which war against the soul.” The apostle Paul admitted in Romans 7:14-25 that he struggled continually between the indwelling Holy Spirit and his vile flesh:
Romans 7:14-25, “For we know that the law is spiritual: but I am carnal, sold under sin. For that which I do I allow not: for what I would, that do I not; but what I hate, that do I. If then I do that which I would not, I consent unto the law that it is good. Now then it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me. For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh,) dwelleth no good thing: for to will is present with me; but how to perform that which is good I find not. For the good that I would I do not: but the evil which I would not, that I do. Now if I do that I would not, it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me. I find then a law, that, when I would do good, evil is present with me. For I delight in the law of God after the inward man: But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members. O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death? I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. So then with the mind I myself serve the law of God; but with the flesh the law of sin.”
Are you DEAD while you're living? Galatians 2:20 teaches that as believers we ought to be dead with Christ, and alive through the indwelling Holy Spirit. God wants us to be dead to sin and pleasure. Granted, it is not a sin to enjoy pleasure within God's laws; but when living in pleasure becomes an end in itself, and God's laws are disregarded (as is common in America today), then one is DEAD IN TRESPASSES AND SINS. As a believer, I choose to be dead in Christ, not dead in sins and pleasure. The ungodly world thinks they are living, but they are dead! END
