Lust is a dangerous force, but we can sometimes minimize in our minds just how powerful it is. The following list and the Bible verses that follow each item may help spotlight how significant lust can be.
- Lust involves believing lies. It is inherently deceptive.
- 2 Corinthians 2:11 – So that we would not be outwitted by Satan; for we are not ignorant of his designs.
- There is no “small sin” (and if there were, lust wouldn’t be one of them, anyway!)
- James 2:10 – For whoever keeps the whole law but fails in one point has become accountable for all of it.
- Satan wishes to destroy you and this is one of his means of doing so.
- 1 Peter 5:8 – Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.
- All sin, lust included, has a price. A very great price!
- Romans 6:23 – For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
- Lust is part of the spiritual warfare being waged between the spirit and the flesh.
- Galatians 5:16 – But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh.
- The battle is most severe when you first attempt to be free.
- Galatians 5:1 – For freedom Christ has set us free; stand firm therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery.
- Radical amputation is necessary for freedom. Lust cannot be allowed any entry into your life.
- Ephesians 4:27 – and do not give the devil a foothold.
- Really, it does have to be “radical”! Make no provision for the flesh!
- Romans 13:14 – But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to gratify its desires.
- The opposite of lust is love, which is selfless.
- 1 Corinthians 13:4-5 – Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful;
- To avoid lust we need to focus on walking in the Spirit. Merely trying to avoid lust won’t work unless we replace our old idol with the Living God.
- Psalm 119:10 – With my whole heart I seek you; let me not wander from your commandments!
- Lust involves and causes other sins.
- James 1:15 – Then, after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, gives birth to death.
- A dominating sexual sin cannot remain secret, and as long as it does, it will work destruction in your life.
- Ephesians 5:11 – Take no part in the unfruitful works of darkness, but instead expose them.
- Lust is often an idol.
- Colossians 3:5 – Put to death therefore what is earthly in you: sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry.
- There is more to life than sex (But you wouldn’t know it if you listened to the world).
- Mark 12:31 – The second is this: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.”
- Sex can be holy and pure when pursued in a selfless and loving way with our wife.
- Hebrews 13:4 – Let marriage be held in honor among all, and let the marriage bed be undefiled, for God will judge the sexually immoral and adulterous.
- When lust takes control, God becomes insubstantial and unimportant to us.
- 1 Peter 2:11 – Beloved, I urge you as sojourners and exiles to abstain from the passions of the flesh, which wage war against your soul.
- We bring glory to God by returning to him and abandoning this sickness of the heart.
- 1 Timothy 2:3-4 – This is good, and pleases God our Savior, who wants all people to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth.
I encourage you to think a great deal on numbers 10 and 17, above. They contain the answer. Just so we won’t minimize lust into some insignificant or everybody does it category….
~~ Anonymous ~~