Sins and Weights
(week 07/06)
Olubi Johnson
Hebrews 12:1 NKJV: Therefore we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us,
Here, the scripture tells us to lay aside sins and weights that hinder us in our Christian race.
Christianity is a race against time to grow into perfection and spiritual maturity. If you do not redeem the time you may never attain perfection or spiritual maturity in your life time and so you will not fulfill your destiny to any appreciable degree.
Weights are acts that may be lawful but are not spiritually expedient:
1 Corinthians 6:12-13 NKJV: All things are lawful for me, but all things are not helpful. All things are lawful for me, but I will not be brought under the power of any. 13 Foods for the stomach and the stomach for foods, but God will destroy both it and them.
1 Corinthians10:23 NKJV: All things are lawful for me, but not all things are helpful; all things are lawful for me, but not all things edify.
In particular, as it concerns our diet: it is lawful under the New Testament to anything so long as you pray over it (1 Tim. 4.4, 5).
However, it is not spiritually expedient to eat anything as some things can hinder you spiritually if you eat them as a habit and at the wrong times:
To attain spiritual perfection and maturity it is necessary to fast regularly (weekly as a habit not legalistic law) and live a fasted life in which the Holy Spirit controls what, when and how much you eat, so you can know to choose good and refuse evil:
Isaiah 7:15 NKJV: Curds and honey He shall eat, that He may know to refuse the evil and choose the good.
So wrong eating habits can be a weight.
The same is true of over-talking; oversleeping and overindulgence in legitimate pleasures like watching television, reading novels or anything that takes away time you should spend with God.
On the other hand sins are acts of omission or commission that are contrary to Gods Word and will.
The Bible definition of sin is deeper than simply breaking the moral codes of the Ten Commandments given to Moses by God.
James 4:17 NKJV: Therefore, to him who knows to do good and does not do it, to him it is sin.
Romans 14:23 NKJV: For whatever is not from faith is sin.
For instance, if some thing has been revealed to you personally as a weight that you need to get rid of and you continue in it, then to you it becomes a sin. However it may not be sin to some one else who it has not been revealed to as a weight, since ordinarily it is lawful.
How then do we overcome weights and sins?
We overcome weights by discipline given by the Holy Spirit.
1 Corinthians 9:24-27 NKJV: Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one gets the prize? Run in such a way as to get the prize. 25 Everyone who competes in the games goes into strict training. They do it to get a crown that will not last; but we do it to get a crown that will last forever. 26 Therefore I do not run like a man running aimlessly; I do not fight like a man beating the air. 27 No, I beat my body and make it my slave so that after I have preached to others, I myself will not be disqualified for the prize.
Romans 8:12-13 NKJV: Therefore, brethren, we are debtors–not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh. 13 For if you live according to the flesh you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live.
We overcome sin by learning obedience, diligently applying the law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus.
