Today I want to talk about a few works of the flesh that you might not think of as evil but genuinely can be. They can be as destructive as any other "work" but can be masked as something else.
When you follow the desires of your sinful nature, the results are very clear.... quarreling, jealousy, outbursts of anger, selfish ambition, dissension, division,
The word for quarreling is a political word. It means divisions like differing political parties. This is not infringing on our rights to have differing points of view or opinion. It is however what I see happening in the church and in our nation every day. It is when we allow an opinion to get in the way of the facts, truth, and especially the love we are supposed to have for one another. This is especially grievous to Jesus because He said we would be known by our love for one another. When we allow divisions to come into the church in any way that limits the love and/or power of God, then we have stopped acting like Jesus and started being more anti-Christ. We should never allow offenses to take hold of our lives but instead, pray for one another and build one another up until we all attain to being like Jesus.
Next "jealousy" simply put anytime we do not cheer on the attention, blessings, and/or promotion a brother or sister gets we are exhibiting jealousy. If you feel resentful at another person's success, you are being controlled by jealousy. God's plan is to meet and exceed all of your needs, but he only does that when He knows He can trust you. If you are not generous, tithing, giving to those in need, and thanking the Lord for all you have on a regular basis then chances are you are living in a realm of jealous. Your satisfaction can and will come from the Lord when you live with a generous heart, being obedient to God's call to give and live with an attitude of gratitude.
Everyone gets angry every once in a while. Some anger is even godly, like when you see sin destroying a person's life. This is referring to the type of explosive anger, people you know who will at any time explode. They get offended, hurt, or wounded and rather than taking it immediately to the cross and asking the Lord to deal with it, they simply shove it down inside. Then when they are offended again, it could be even slight, because they never really dealt with the last offense, they explode. We are supposed to be dead to our flesh. This shows the flesh very alive. We are supposed to walk in grace and forgiveness, this reveals that we have a lack of both. The real danger here is that if we don't forgive others then the Father will not forgive us. This work can literally cause us to wind up in hell.
So, walk in love, be generous and obedient to God's word, and live in forgiveness and you will have amazing peace, love, and joy all of your life!
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