Thoughts and Actions

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

Colossians 3:5  Mortify therefore your members which are upon the earth; fornication, uncleanness, lust, evil concupiscence, and covetousness, which is the service of idols. Latin Vulgate

Colossians 3:5  Therefore slay ye your members which be on the earth, fornication, uncleanness, lechery, evil covetousness, and avarice, which is service of maumet.  Wycliffe

There have been many times in the past, I was mortified because of my actions; in fact, with all of these on the list.  Let's look at each one.

Fornication

The act of sexual intercourse, whether self, opposite, same-sex, or multiple variations.  What do I mean by multi variations?  A person in one sexual act does all three from self as well as multiple partners to include males and females within the sexual act.  The Lord intended sex only for the creation of a human being.  Any and all sex outside of the purpose of creating another human being is fornication.  In marriage, a person who fornicates outside of the marriage is called adultery, but the act is still fornication whether, inside a marriage, outside marriage, or the person is unmarried.  It could also be that one or multiple members are married or unmarried within the sexual act.  Again, the sole purpose of sex is to create a child.  This goes all the way back to Genesis 1: 28 "And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth,"  

Uncleanness

A person is unclean when they live a vile and vain life of evil.  Their moral compass is following darkness and not the Light. Turning back to Genesis 8:21, "for the imagination of man’s heart is evil from his youth."  God destroyed the earth by a flood where the Lord realizes a person's heart starts with evil way back in their childhood.  Every person, including my children, acts in immoral ways or, in most cases, are vile and vain.  We are fortunate to have great kids where the Lord has worked in their lives since early childhood.  Others are not so fortunate; many vile things happened, not due to their own doings. We live in a very sick and evil world from pedophiles, rapists, murders, liars, cheaters, etc..

Inordinate Affection, Lust, Lechery

We looked at Fornication, which is the act, lust and lechery is more of a thought process.  Advertisers bombard us daily with sexual advertisements.  It was told to me once there are more pornographic websites than all the other websites combined.  Lust is as simple as seeing a person of the opposite or same-sex and having sexual desires about them. It could be your daily thought process or as simple as showing a piece of your body for others to see.  Let me give an example. I have started to work out lately for exercises.  There was this video of a woman working out. I did a double-take, not believing what I saw; sure enough, she was showing everyone who watched the video her vagina. It was very clear.  I can't say for 100% certainty this woman wanted to show those who watched her video her private areas, but my guess is she had an idea.  Lust revolves around sexual desires, not the act, that is fornication.  

Evil concupiscence and Covetousness

It is true concupiscence means lust, which includes sexual lust, but it is more.  Just like lust and fornication are intertwined, so is concupiscence and avarice.  Avarice is the act of physically gathering, and concupiscence is the thought or lust of it in your mind.  Concupiscence is our thoughts around what we can covet or obtain through our own acts vs. receiving from God.  I can relate to food being a concupiscence as I would desire to eat fast food to satisfy a craving, which was in my mind.  Although, in this case, it is talking about money or greed, we can also attribute to our thoughts, which, if we put into action, could cause physical harm to us or others.  There are thousands of examples where our selfish desires, including sexual lusts, enter our thought process, which is evil and dark versus Spirit-filled in the Light of Christ.  

Avarice and Covetousness a service to idols or false god

 Greed, love of money, wealth, things, etc...  Avarice is the physical act of coveting something like money.  One could say a Christian living in poverty leaves their place to travel to a new land to covet another country or person's wealth to better themselves versus the Lord providing for their needs.  Here in the US, a person can go out and get three, four, five jobs if needed.  Of course, some need this many jobs to survive, but others do it out of coveting something.  It is a dangerous line when serving false gods or idols, expecting money or wealth to protect and provide for you instead of the Lord God in Jesus Christ.  

Each one of us who is walking in our lusts and/or actions should be ashamed, embarrassed, mortified, and regretful when we stop living for Christ and live in the flesh of evil.  As we end today, each of these five areas goes back to Matthew 6 in living a life for Christ when Jesus spoke the Sermon on the Mount.  We are to live for today; tomorrow is evil and not promised.  It is not easy to put your trust and faith in God.  Most of the world lives an unclean vile and vain life full of lust and evil actions.  Paul very abruptly, and rightly so, calls out the evils of the world in each of these desires and/or actions.  Even thinking about doing it is evil.   Paul reminds the Church at Colosse in Colossians 3:7, "In the which ye also walked some time when ye lived in them."  Every single person, since our childhood, has lived this life of evil thoughts and actions.  God acknowledged it way back in Genesis after the flood.  Jesus Christ died on the cross for the salvation of our soul to repentance of these lust and evil sins in our lives through the baptism in water and our faith in Christ.  Our trust and hope need to be in the Lord.  We need to pick up our cross each day, giving Jesus Christ our love in everything, including our heart, soul, mind (thoughts), and strength (actions).   I will leave you with a verse in Luke 9 23 "And he said to them all, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow me"  Deny yourself and pick up your cross.  Go ahead, picked it up and follow Christ.