FEB 1 - New Slaves
6-7 Seek God while he’s here to be found, pray to him while he’s close at hand.
Let the wicked abandon their way of life and the evil their way of thinking.
Let them come back to God, who is merciful, come back to our God, who is lavish with forgiveness.
8-11“I don’t think the way you think. The way you work isn’t the way I work.”
Isaiah 55:6-8 MSG
20 For when you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness. 21 But what fruit were you getting at that time from the things of which you are now ashamed? For the end of those things is death. 22 But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the fruit you get leads to sanctification and its end, eternal life. 23 For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Romans 6:20-23 ESV
We often think God is after us to judge us, but God is quick to forgive and receives us without rejection. Lack of repentance keeps us from abandoning our way of life, our bad habits, our challenges and ways of thinking.
But Paul uses the concept of slavery to the Romans, when he says what is the fruit of being a slave to sin?
The dictionary defines slave as: a person who is completely subservient to a dominating influence
What dominating force as we submitting to? Sex? Gambling?
You ever hear the expression: ”Rome wasn’t built in a day”?
Paul is telling a generation that built Rome with slaves that at the end of everything, all they get is death.
But being a slave of God, again not slave in a derogatory way, but slave as in total submission, leads us to the fruit of holiness and in the end, eternal life.
Discussion questions:
Are you serving something that isn’t being fruitful in your life?
If you’ve been serving God for a long time, what fruits have you seen in your life?
What’s keeping this generation from true repentance? How can we facilitate a culture of repentance?