No 20

(Passion)

The World Book dictionary describes passion as “strong feelings or emotions as an obstacle to civilized conduct or rational behaviour.” The Lord has built humans to have passion and, if used in a normal way, can produce very good results. It takes passion to write a 600-page commentary on the book of Matthew; passion is a must if someone is to preach the Gospel on street corners in the face of ridicule and passion is also required to play a musical instrument. However, because of our twisted and distorted sin nature, passion can also produce negative results. A husband who verbally and physically abuses his family or people who are jealous and envious of others are examples of misdirected passion. Unfortunately, these and other sins of passion such as rage, greed, pride and immorality are found in true born-again Christians. Passion is alright but when it gets out of hand and sin ensues, the Lord has given us His Word to fall back on. Paul was passionate and he wrote these words : “Oh, wretched man that I am! Who shall deliver me from the body of death?” (Rom 7:24). Paul realized that in his own life, he was sinful. So the first step in controlling our sinful passion is admitting that we have a problem; half the battle is won right there. Next, we must decide to obey Christ and obedience involves our will. We must make the decision in our hearts to obey the Lord in all things. Lastly, we must call upon God and His Holy Spirit to enlighten us and to give us spiritual power to fight this sin. One more thing that we can do to overcome sinful passion in our lives is to be accountable to a trustworthy Christian friend. Do we have a violent temper? Do we have a jealous spirit? Do we have a lustful eye? We must confess it to the Lord and accept His forgiveness. “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.” (1 John 1:9).