They wanted people to die, we want sin to die
Friends, I hope that this little series on the difference between the New Testament ethic and the ethic we find in Psalm 137 has been helpful to you.
I want to continue a little bit on what we spoke about yesterday. The Jews said some terrible things about their enemies. Verse 9 says, “Happy is the one who seizes your infants and dashes them against the rocks.” Whoa, that is quite hectic.
Death of Sin
I think you'll agree that the Christian ethic is different. The Christian is never happy to see an infant die, of course. And as we said yesterday, the Christian even mourns when their enemies die without meeting God, because we long for everybody, even the most evil to come to salvation.
I want to remind you that in the end, the only death that Christians celebrate is the death of sin. And when it comes to the death of sin, we always start with ourselves and put to death the sinful things in our lives. Paul said in Romans 8:1 “If you live according to the flesh, (in other words, your sinful desires), you will die. But if by the spirit you put to death the misdeeds of the body you will live.”
What about Colossians 3:5 where he said “Put to death, therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly nature, sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires and greed, which idolatry.” Put them to death, he says. The only death that Christians desire is the death of their own sin.
Kill Sin Daily
So no, we don't sit by the rivers and weep, longing for our enemies' destruction, like the Jews in exile in Babylon. But we do spend the time looking at our own lives and with the help of the Spirit, put our sinful actions and attitudes to death.
I've shared it many times that great quote by John Owen: “Be killing sin or sin will be killing you.”
Perhaps you'd like to take a moment today and just look at your life. Is there anything that needs to be put to death? Attitudes of hatred and unforgiveness and bitterness, immorality of any kind, selfishness, perhaps.
Maybe you need to put to death your offensive spirit - in other words, you get offended by everything. Put that to death. It does nothing for you in your Christian journey to keep getting offended by everybody.
Maybe you need to put to death your over-ambitious nature that has your ideals all messed up in life.
Maybe you're working so hard that you're ignoring your family and you need to put to death that drive for success.
Maybe you're lazy and you need to put that to death and get to work.
I don't know what it is. Look inside with the help of the Spirit and put to death the misdeeds of the body, as Paul said, and walk by the spirit.
Live in Christ
In the end, friends, that's going to do you a whole lot better than sitting by the rivers and weeping at the way things used to be and longing for the death of your enemies.
May it be that your life is filled with praise, with worship, with focus, with passion, because instead of getting fixated on the death of evil people, your life tells a story of dying to sin and living in Christ.
