“WICKEDNESS” Devotion by Pastor Fred Snider

“Everyone who confesses the name of the Lord must turn away from wickedness.” 2 Timothy 2:19b

All true followers of Christ have confessed the name of the Lord and are not “Christians” in name only. When I confessed the name of the Lord I accepted His forgiveness and knew that the sin that separated me from Him was hung on the cross and bled for. Jesus did something for me that I could not do for myself. He became the perfect sacrifice for all sin, all of mine, all of yours, all of everybody’s. Not just in that moment on the cross, but for all of history past, present time and all time future. Quite an amazing and overwhelming accomplishment I think. The most important feat ever completed. Just imagine, with one act of total commitment Christ forgave all sin and put in motion the following actions that conquered death and totally crippled the devil’s capability to mess with saved humans without their permission. Wowie! That is so huge that I do not have words to express it.

So, if He does this for each of us and we confess our sins to Him and are subsequently forgiven, then He has earned every right to tell us to turn away from wickedness. God help us. We are so weak. The verse is clear and I am convicted again as I read it. It says “must” because it means must. My problem is not that I don’t believe this or don’t take it serious, it is that I need to be reminded of what all wickedness is. Wickedness is a lot of things and is a lot more than we like to think. We, as followers of the Way, know that our sin is forgiven and that even though we can’t be perfect, we should definitely try harder, lots harder. We don’t teach much about holiness or righteousness and I think we justify a lot of our sin, so we don’t feel wicked when we are enjoying it. Wickedness is depravity. Wickedness is what the natural man does. Wickedness is what the carnal man caves into. Wickedness is what the spiritual man is tempted by. We aren’t totally wicked because God sees us through the lens of Christ’s covering of His blood shed for our sin, but, we are prone to more worldliness and hence wicked ways than we want to admit or even think about. Lying, cheating, gossiping, perversion, idleness, gluttony, arrogance, pride, character assassination, judge-mentalism, legalism, churchianity….. the list literally goes on and on. What I need to do is turn more often and sooner from the things that are wicked and the wickedness that ensues from those things. I can’t sit on a flagpole and be self-righteous, but I can’t excuse hanging around in the gutter unless I am on a direct mission from God either. How about if I just say we should quit sinning so much? Is that clearer?

So, all you Christ-followers, stay with me here. What say we raise the bar literally for ‘Christ’s sake’? What say we are more accountable for our choices and our potty mouths, and our meanness? How in the world will the world know the difference if there isn’t any?

Desiring to make more of a difference,
Pastor Fred

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