If you will not have death unto sin, you shall have sin unto death. There is no alternative. If you do not die to sin, you shall die for sin. If you do not slay sin, sin will slay you.
Interpretation
This quote emphasizes the necessity of overcoming sin to avoid spiritual death.
Charles Spurgeon's quote presents a stark dichotomy between life and death in relation to sin. It suggests that one must actively confront and overcome sin in their life; failing to do so will lead not only to spiritual decay but ultimately to despair and destruction. The imagery of dying to sin represents a transformative process where one chooses to renounce wrongdoing, while the assertion that sin will slay you highlights the perils of allowing sin to dominate one's life. Thus, the quote serves as a powerful reminder of the importance of moral vigilance and self-discipline in the pursuit of a virtuous life.
In practice
In a sermon about personal growth, one might use this quote to illustrate the necessity of overcoming sinful habits.
Amusement should be used to do us good “like a medicine”: it must never be used as the food of the man...Many have had all holy thoughts and gracious resolutions stamped out by perpetual trifling. Pleasure so called is the murderer of thought. This is the age of excessive amusement: everybody craves for it, like a babe for its rattle.
When you see no present advantage, walk by faith and not by sight. Do God the honor to trust Him when it comes to matters of loss for the sake of principle.
It is far easier to fight with sin in public than to pray against it in private.
You will never glory in God till first of all God has killed your glorying in yourself.
After faith comes repentance, or, rather, repentance is faith's twin brother and is born at the same time.
["All the paths of the Lord are mercy and truth unto such as keep his covenant."] The original Hebrew word that has been translated "paths" means "well-worn roads' or "wheel tracks," such ruts as wagons make when they go down our green roads in wet weather and sink in up to the axles. God's ways are at times like heavy wagon tracks that cut deep into our souls, yet all of them are merciful.
You tell me: 'Life is hard to bear.' But if it were otherwise why should ou have your pride in the morning nad your resignation in the evening?
I will come out with my interpretation. If I'm wrong, fine. It will become part of the debris of history, part of the give and take.
So act that anything you do may become universal law.
No one in the final analysis really fails to become a Christian because of lack of arguments; he fails to become a Christian because he loves darkness rather than light and wants nothing to do with God.
For sin is just this, what man cannot by its very nature do with his whole being; it is possible to silence the conflict in the soul, but it is not possible to uproot it
Many words and expressions which only a matter of decades ago were considered so distastefully explicit that, were they merely to be breathed in public, the perpetrator would be shunned, barred from polite society, and in extreme cases shot through the lungs, are now thought to be very healthy and proper, and their use in everyday speech and writing is evidence of a well-adjusted, relaxed and totally un****ed-up personality.
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