1 Corinthians 9
24 Know ye not that they which run in a race run all, but one receiveth the prize? So run, that ye may obtain.
25 And every man that striveth for the mastery is temperate in all things. Now they do it to obtain a corruptible crown; but we an incorruptible.
26 I therefore so run, not as uncertainly; so fight I, not as one that beateth the air:
27 But I keep under my body, and bring it into subjection: lest that by any means, when I have preached to others, I myself should be a castaway.
Psalms 24
3 Who shall ascend into the hill of the Lord? or who shall stand in his holy place?
4 He that hath clean hands, and a pure heart; who hath not lifted up his soul unto vanity, nor sworn deceitfully.
5 He shall receive the blessing from the Lord, and righteousness from the God of his salvation.
6 This is the generation of them that seek him, that seek thy face, O Jacob. Selah.
A true believer in Jesus Christ brings his body into subjection and exercises self control in all things that could hinder him or her to successfully climb the hill of the Lord. There is nothing worse than sin in a Christian’s life that will cause him to fail.
Jesus calls you to live on the mountain top. As a Christian you must live in victory over sin, the world and the devil, by God’s power. If you don’t, you will become like salt which has lost its saltiness.
Young people who fall into sin excuse themselves that the attraction for the opposite sex is just too strong.
No, in the Name of the Lord Jesus Christ, if anyone fixes their eyes on the Lord Jesus Christ, such a person will overcome and be successful. Wherever you go, if you fix your eyes on the goal, your life won’t be worthless.
A Christian is not allowed to sin, whether it be a small or a big sin in your own eyes.
We do not read that John the apostle did any miracles of healing like the apostle Peter did, but he had tremendous authority. In 1John 3:8 he wrote, “He that commits sin is of the devil; for the devil sins from the beginning. For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that he might destroy the works of the devil”. He experienced God’s power so greatly that he wrote that a person who sins is of the devil, and not of God. Jesus came to do away with sin, and destroy the work of the devil.
Rather lose your own life than sin. God’s law applies to every single one of us. Some claim that they are free while living in sin. That kind of freedom is not the freedom from God but from the devil.
Some of C.T. Studd’s co-workers went against him because he required the African head-hunters who came to Christ to live Christian lives according to the Bible. He replied that it doesn’t matter whether they’re black or white, head-hunters or cultivated Englishmen, God’s Word is the final authority.
Paul wrote that he disciplined his body, and made it his slave, so that he won’t be disqualified himself after having preached to others. In the same way we must live disciplined lives as true soldiers of the Lord.