Mortify the Deeds of the Flesh

“For if ye live after the flesh, ye shall die: but if ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live” Romans 8:13

“Mortify therefore your members which are upon the earth; fornication, uncleanness, inordinate affection, evil concupiscence, and covetousness, which is idolatry” Colossians 3:5

God commands us, as Christians, to mortify the deeds of our flesh. Mortification is the putting to death the deeds of the flesh moment by moment each day. The Greek tense in this command suggests a decisive action such as “Mortify it! Do it now! Do it resolutely”! In Colossians 3:3 we see that we have already died to the power of sin when we accepted Christ as Savior and our life was hidden with Christ in God. That is our standing which is the free gift of God through faith. However, our state represents our response to God’s grace. God is saying “I freely give to all who believe on the Lord Jesus a position of favor in My sight. Now go out and live a life that is consistent with such a high calling.” That is our duty.

Not only are outward sinful acts wrong, but the very desire itself for certain sins is also sinful and must be repented of and put to death. We should never entertain a desire for something God forbids. Today some persons want to claim they can be a homosexual Christian by not acting on their sinful homosexual desire. This is false as God did not create them to be something that he forbids. Homosexual desire is simply a sin that they are wrongly desiring not who they were created to be. We are to repent of sinful desires and kill them and not just try to manage them. In the sample list of sins to mortify above fornication is the actual act of sexual sin whereas concupiscence is the internal disordered desire or craving for sexual sin. Both must be put to death and this principle can be applied to any sin.

Believers are those who “through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body” and live. They are not to go on living as though they are still alive to sin when they are not. God expects His people to resolutely mortify their flesh and live a consistent, holy life day by day. The Holy Spirit gives us the power to do this but we are the ones commanded and responsible to choose to put this in action including mortifying our desire for sins. None will live a perfect life this side of Heaven but most of us should evidence a much more holy life than we do and we owe this to God for all He has done for us.