But I say to you,
everyone who looks at a woman with lust
has already committed adultery with her in his heart.
Jesus is callings us once again to get our hearts right. He is raising the standard to a level that is humanly impossible. He is not content with the merely external acts of obedience. He wants our entire hearts. Only his power in us can rise to the standard to which we are called.
We hold this treasure in earthen vessels,
that the surpassing power may be of God and not from us.
If, then, we truly are different as followers of Jesus, let us make obvious the source of the surpassing power at work in us. The basis of this power and of this inner transformation is the cross and the resurrection.
always carrying about in the Body the dying of Jesus,
so that the life of Jesus may also be manifested in our body.
The obedience Jesus shows in dying for us is what gives us the power to resist temptation. His resurrected life gives us the power to live as new creations with hearts that serve God and one another.
Circumstances may still be really bad. But Jesus has already faced the worst of it for us. It is his power within us that meets every challenge.
We are afflicted in every way, but not constrained;
perplexed, but not driven to despair;
persecuted, but not abandoned;
struck down, but not destroyed;
If we feel constrained, drive to despair, abandoned, or even destroyed we should take heart. The power of Jesus delivers us from all of these challenges. Afflictions would constrain us if death was the end. The things in life which are hard to understand would drive us to despair if we were left on our own. Persecutions and being struck down would be irreversible evils. But none of these things has the last say in the life of a Christian!
We must be like the psalmist:
I believed, even when I said,
“I am greatly afflicted”;
He is afflicted, but ultimately he is not constrained because the power of God delivers him. It does not deliver him as immediately as he would like. Perhaps it is not in the way he would have liked. But as a result, he glorifies the LORD:
To you will I offer sacrifice of thanksgiving,
and I will call upon the name of the LORD.
My vows to the LORD I will pay
in the presence of all his people.
The power of the resurrection changes everything. We have to remember this hope that is before us if we really want to rise above the circumstances which assail us. Only if we know this by being united with Jesus will we see everything else in its proper perspective.
knowing that the one who raised the Lord Jesus
will raise us also with Jesus
and place us with you in his presence.
Darrell Evans - Trading My Sorrows
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