“So kill (deaden, deprive of power) the evil desire lurking in your members [those animal impulses and all that is earthly in you that is employed in sin]: sexual vice, impurity, sensual appetites, unholy desires, and all greed and covetousness, for that is idolatry (the deifying of self and other created things instead of God).” Colossians 3:5 – To kill something I must cut off its lines of supply: it is futile and lying to myself to complain about my inability to resist the last stage of a temptation when earlier stages have gone by unnoticed, or even happily/expectantly welcomed. This does not mean I set up a new gargantuan wall around something general, such as branding all theatrical performances (or whatever) as inherently ‘sinful’. Instead, I have the responsibility, before God, to investigate the lifelines of whatever sins are defeating me personally, and to cut them off without pity…immediately. Better that than have them eventually destroy me. Temptation itself is not sin…see Hebrews 4:15 “For we do not have a High Priest Who is unable to understand and sympathize and have a shared feeling with our weaknesses and infirmities and liability to the assaults of temptation, but One Who has been tempted in every respect as we are, yet without sinning.” Jesus was tempted in every way but He never sinned. This action of ‘cutting off the lifelines’ is a day-by-day, hour-by-hour, minute-by-minute, second-by-second activity until Christ returns.
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