As we pursue the Christian walk, we should not rationalize our
behavior by saying that we can’t behave ourselves. God says that He
does not permit any temptation that we cannot bear (I Cor 10:13).
Jesus illustrated the extent to which we must go by showing that He
had to resist His temptation by sweating blood. We have not gone that
far. The Hebrews were admonished because they were leaving Christ and they had not at that point even resisted their temptation unto blood
(Heb 12:4). If we can’t even give up what we desire for a little
while, what makes us think we would go to the block for Christ? Yet
Christ says, if we are not willing to die for Him, we cannot be His
disciple (Lk 14:26, Mt 10:39). We ought to remember what Paul wrote
to the Galatians:
Galatians 5:19 Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are
these; Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness,
20 Idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife,
seditions, heresies,
21 Envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and such like: of the
which I tell you before, as I have also told you in time past, THAT
THEY WHICH DO SUCH THINGS SHALL NOT INHERIT THE KINGDOM OF GOD.
