We need to run in the opposite direction if we meet individuals that display the below-listed characteristics.
You should avoid them like a communicable disease if they demonstrate any of the traits listed in verses nineteen – twenty-one.
“19 The acts of the flesh are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; 20 idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions 21 and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God.” Galatians 5:19-21
Women, and men – We Christians need to be discerning about the people we choose to go out with.
Please, please, please don’t think you can change them after you marry them.
Most of you have heard the saying, “A leopard doesn’t change his spots” and “Once a snake, always a snake.”
A friend told me a story many years ago and it is still fresh in my mind. “A traveler saw an injured, poisonous snake. He picked it up, took it home, warmed it, and nursed it back to health. One day, for no reason, the snake bit his benefactor.
The benefactor asked, “Why did you bite me after all I’ve done for you?”
The snake replied, “You knew I was a snake when you brought me home.”’
The moral of the story – Stay away from snakes and wolves in sheep clothing.
If we go out with an individual we’ve met through a friend or Christian dating site, and observe a hateful, spiteful, argumentative, jealous, envious attitude, we need to end the date quickly, and stay as far away from that individual as we can. Need I say, delete them from your phone, email, profile, etc.
If we observe drunkenness, idolatry, and witchcraft, we need to flee like we’re running from the devil, because we are. What does light and darkness have in common? What does holiness and filthiness have in common? Can oil and water mix?
“1 But mark this: There will be terrible times in the last days. 2 People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, 3 without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of the good, 4 treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God— 5 having a form of godliness but denying its power. Have nothing to do with such people.” 2 Timothy 3:1-5
The individuals’ Apostle Paul refers to have a form of godliness but denies God’s power, and I think these are church-going people Paul is talking about.
So, beware, ladies and gentlemen. We may find the unrighteous, unforgiving, arrogant, devious, controlling, lovers of evil and the world, sitting next to us in church.
Flee!
Run in the opposite direction if one of those individuals approaches you!
Do a one-hundred eighty-degree turn if you happen to be going in the same direction!