Bible Studies: Repercussions of Disobedience

Hardened Hearts
Because sin is against God, when we commit sin and still have the Holy Spirit, we can grow hardened toward the love of Christ and to the Spirit’s leadings. After all, if every time we sin we are grieving the Holy Spirit after a while we will become hardened to the idea that Christ died and suffered for us — thereby depleting or losing even our love for Him and our gratefulness for what He has done. In Hebrews, the Apostle Paul talks about willful sinners, those who willfully, fully cognizant of their sin continue to disobey God and become reprobate-minded sinners. These types of sinners He advises Christians to not even eat with because to their loss, they are making a public mockery of Jesus and recrucifying Him all over again (1 Corinthians 5:11, Hebrews 6:6).

Christians Can Make Mistakes
This is not to say that Christians won’t sin. Being human, we can sin without even really knowing about it sometimes. Sometimes we can hurt our neighbor and disobey the second greatest commandment but not know about it until the Holy Spirit convicts us to repent. The Holy Spirit never condemns people but always convicts so that they will come to repentance and return to God for forgiveness and fellowship. However, if someone has the devil at work in their lives, or are willfully sinning, they might feel condemned when they sin. This condemnation comes from knowing they are sinful but not having any desire to repent so that they may continue in their sin. The Apostle Paul says that those who continue in their sin have not known Christ and therefore are not indwelt with the Holy Spirit. When one feels condemned for their sin, they will distance from God because they will have sinned against Him and without repentance for their sin they will lose fellowship with God. Once again, it is important to remember that willful sinners are those who do not know God. If you already have the Holy Spirit you will not lose it but you will need to listen to it so that you can come back into relationship with God.

Willful Sinners
Those that don’t obey God and are willful sinners would have been better off if they had been in ignorance to their sin but when they have the Holy Spirit telling them their sin is wrong they are even more guilty for not repenting according to its leading. This is what it means to be willful. A willful sinner intentionally sins and doesn’t repent or keeps repeating the same sin in blatant disregard for God and His laws.

Sin Will Catch Up With You
If you are abusing God’s grace for a time it may seem that everything is going your way. You can do whatever you want under grace according to your point of view and still be loved by God. Sooner or later you will reap the consequences of your sin. God disciplines everyone He calls a son or daughter (Hebrews 12:6). So if you are a child of God with the Holy Spirit and you are still stuck in sin God will eventually deal with you until you come into repentance. Some people do not come to repentance. They continue to sin until their heart becomes hardened toward God. People with hardened hearts are difficult to bring back to God and the bible says that if your heart is hardened toward God you were probably never a son or daughter of God in the first place.

Listen to God
We have to be sensitive to the rebuke of the Holy Spirit. If not we run a great risk of setting ourselves up for failure and disconnect from God. The Holy Spirit is also called the Comforter because it comes to our rescue when we are down-hearted or tempted. He is meant to deliver us from sin while we are in this lifetime not to be a burdensome task-master who is continually punishing us with thoughts of inadequacy or guilt. Those thoughts of unmanageable guilt that doesn’t go away are not from God. The Holy Spirit encourages us when we make progress, even if it is slight. But God will continue to refine and shape us through the Holy Spirit until we bear the image of Christ in our life walk.

Obey and Be Blessed
Obeying God has great rewards. It may seem inconvenient or difficult at the time but it will in the end benefit you and God’s kingdom. As earthly representatives of Christ it behooves us to obey Him and set an example the world will want to follow. Hypocrites do nothing but negative things for Christians, Christ, God and His kingdom. If you are acting hypocritically, expect to not be blessed abundantly until you start obeying. God sees our inner-self and even our thoughts should be godly and pleasing to Him. We should pray continually and be mindful not to sin so that we can bring more people into God’s kingdom and bring God more glory.

After God gave all the laws to the Israelites during the days of Moses, written about in the Old Testament, He promised that if they were careful to obey His laws He would bless, prosper and heal them (Deuteronomy 6:24). He even promised the absence of disease in those who obeyed His laws (Exodus 15:26). With Christ we are under grace which means we have been redeemed and bear His righteousness as our clothing since we could never obey all the Old Testament laws without the help of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit gives us power to avoid sin. So while we don’t have to follow all of the law because as humans we can’t, we do have to submit to the Holy Spirit’s leadings in order to love Christ. If you don’t obey God by loving Him and keeping His commandments to love Him and your neighbor you are forsaking the gospel that was meant to be your salvation. Instead of denying Christ we must obey Him especially now that we have the power to say no to sin. Before we were saved we couldn’t obey Him. Now that we can, we should. However, if you make a mistake and confess your sin to God, repent of it and discontinue it you will be forgiven and blessed.

Confess and Be Saved
I encourage you today to listen to the Holy Spirit and don’t harden your hearts with continual disobedience. You will be blessed for it.