Mortify therefore your members...

I think I’m beginning to see many of the Old Testament lessons, and especially the ones here in Judges, as applicable to an individual believer (at least as much as, if not more than, the corporate body we most often mean when we refer to "the church")…

We are told in the New Testament that the collective body of believers is "the temple of God", but that each individual member is also.

 

[1Co 3:16-17 KJV]

16 Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and [that] the Spirit of God dwelleth in you?

17 If any man defile the temple of God, him shall God destroy; for the temple of God is holy, which [temple] ye are.

 

[1Co 6:19 KJV]

19 What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost [which is] in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own?

 

So, the explicit command from God to the Old Testament Israelites to purge the (exceeding sinful) Canaanites from the land of Israel (the body of God's chosen and peculiar people) would therefore, among other analogies, mirror the command from Jesus Christ to a New Testament believer to mortify his members (his own body/being) of sin .  So as with failure to do either.

 

[1Co 6:18 KJV]

18 Flee fornication. Every sin that a man doeth is without the body; but he that committeth fornication sinneth against his own body.

 

[Rom 8:13 KJV]

13 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.

 

[Col 3:5 KJV]

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

 

They did it "well enough" for their own desires - enough so that they were comfortable.  So might a modern believer repent "well enough" to satisfy themselves as to their own new-found goodness, never going on unto perfection (Heb 6:1).

Purging is difficult, continuous, heavy labor.  Doing this means living a different life than those around you.  When you very purposely live differently than those with whom you regularly come into contact, the question of "Why?" will be raised.  The answer to which cannot but be seen as reproachful to them.

Surely, it is much easier to compromise, to "get along", to "have peace".  But…woe unto those who make peace with the unfruitful works of darkness.  Each man doing that which was right in his own eyes (Judges 21:25), rather than to love the LORD your God, to walk in all his ways, and to cleave unto him (Deu 11:33).

 

[Rom 13:12 KJV]

12 The night is far spent, the day is at hand: let us therefore cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armour of light.

 

[1Jo 2:8 KJV]

8 Again, a new commandment I write unto you, which thing is true in him and in you: because the darkness is past, and the true light now shineth.

 

[Jer 6:14 KJV]

14 They have healed also the hurt [of the daughter] of my people slightly, saying, Peace, peace; when [there is] no peace.

 

To live a life eschewing sin, seeking ever more closely the perfection of our Example (walking in the light)…one can't help but throw a light on those around us who wish to remain in the darkness.

 

[Eph 5:13 KJV]

13 But all things that are reproved are made manifest by the light: for whatsoever doth make manifest is light.

 

[Jhn 8:12 KJV]

12 Then spake Jesus again unto them, saying, I am the light of the world: he that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life.

 

[Eph 5:8 KJV]

8 For ye were sometimes darkness, but now [are ye] light in the Lord: walk as children of light:

 

[1Jo 1:7 KJV]

7 But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin.

This will either spark repentance and revival in the wrongdoers, or persecution of the light-bringer.  If someone were to accuse you of being a "Christian", of being different than those around you who are not…would there be enough evidence to convict?