With each passing year, witchcraft has grown more acceptable in the eyes of man, yet God has not wavered concerning His thoughts on these matters.
God works in mysterious ways! At times, in order to bring about His desired plan in the lives of His own people, the Lord strengthens the hands of His enemies.
To steal is to wrongfully and selfishly take something that belongs to someone else and place it amongst one’s own possessions.
Scripture provides examples of specific sins; however, no example DEFINES sin. John's first epistle defines it as the transgression of the law.
The Old Testament Law declares and expresses the mind of God. It demonstrates God’s hatred for sin and His desire for just judgment.
Historically, the word jealous is connected to the word zeal rather than to envy. Unfortunately, the world has perverted man’s understanding of jealousy by likening it to a detestable sin. The Bible student recognizes that jealousy cannot always be sinful because God says that He is a jealous God (Nahum 1:2) and God does not sin. A scriptural study proves that jealousy can be righteous, or it can be wicked depending upon the intent of the one in whom this jealousy originates. In a very basic sense, jealousy is the unwillingness to share or allow anything to rival the object of one’s desire. Since man has sinful desires, jealously is often viewed as sinful and can lead to other sinful practices. In the Lord’s case, His righteous desire to be man’s only true and living God drives Him to just judgment and godly jealousy.
Every individual to a certain degree is a prime target for temptation. Yet, because of personal choices and circumstances, some people are a far greater target than others. According to scripture, ungodly fellowship (Exodus 23:33; Exodus 34:12; Proverbs 22:24-26), riches (Deuteronomy 7:25; 1 Timothy 6:9), and broken vows (Proverbs 20:25) are a few of the things that weaken the believer’s ability to endure temptation. Some of these are blatantly sinful while others can be innocent. Each believer needs to diligently seek the Lord regardless of whether or not any of these things are present in his life. However, the presence of these things only works to heighten a man’s temptations.
The Devil would have man believe that hiding from problems provides an adequate solution. This is a lie! Adam and Eve created problems for themselves by partaking of the fruit. Their initial efforts to resolve the problem further confirmed that they had created an unresolved situation of their own doing. As they heard the voice of the Lord walking in the garden, they hid themselves amongst the trees in hopes that these efforts would protect them in some way. They hoped the problem would pass unnoticed without them having to face the fact that they had sinned against the Lord. The Lord would not allow them to hide; instead, He called for Adam to show himself resulting in both Adam and Eve directly facing the problem.
The believer’s life is loaded with benefits (Psalm 68:19), but one of the greatest of these benefits concerns the area of vengeance. According to scripture, vengeance is reserved for the Lord’s enemies (Deuteronomy 32:41; Judges 11:36), or adversaries (Deuteronomy 32:43; Jeremiah 46:10; Nahum 1:2), or the heathen (Psalm 149:7; Micah 5:15) but specifically upon “them that know not God” (2 Thessalonians 1:8). God does not deal with His people in vengeance, it is reserved for those who reject the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ (2 Thessalonians 1:8). When the children of God are disobedient, the Lord chastens, but He never takes vengeance upon His own.
Because of certain false teachings, there remains a great deal of confusion concerning the matter of confessing sins. However, when we accept the Bible as our sole authority, the confusion dissipates and disappears. Our earlier study showed that actions must follow confession, but to whom should we confess? Some religions falsely teach that we confess our sins to man, but this is simply untrue. The Bible requires that man confess his sins to the Lord. This truth is confirmed repeatedly throughout the word of God. Our First John passage teaches this, but the Bible provides several additional witnesses (Psalm 32:5; Joshua 7:19; 2 Chronicles 30:22; Ezra 10:1; and Daniel 9:4, 20, for instance). Our next study delves into the subject of Christians confessing something to men, but confession of sin or sins must be made solely to God.
