You know the gap. The mechanic tells you, “You’ve got a bad oil leak. If you don’t have it checked out you could lose your oil and get stranded on the road.” You put it off and find yourself stranded on a lonely highway.  It’s a human tendency to put things off or minimize them. It’s a gap between what you know and what you do.

What about in your spiritual life?

Knowledge of Christ does not automatically translate into a changed life. I’ve seen this problem in everyone from Bible school graduates to Bible study participants.  They have a deep knowledge of the Bible and the facts of Christianity. They have the lingo down. But their beliefs are not reflected in how they live their lives. There is a gap. But this gap is even more important than that oil leak in the car.

There have been men in my group who do not understand why they are stuck in secret sin. They can recite Bible verses and give you all the theology about sin. Their conversations inspire other guys in the group because of their deep knowledge. But they are stuck.

There is a gap between what they say they believe and what they really believe and are willing to do. Behavior will match the values truly held.

In their belief about sexuality for example, they may think they accept the Bible’s teaching, but they actually believe that they have earned the right to look at porn because they had a hard day, or their wife does not understand them, they’re bored, or whatever. It’s some kind of kinky Bible plus I’ll do whatever I want, whenever I want to value system that allows them to continue in their sexual sin. This is their true belief because this is how they live. They rationalize and minimize it, and will try to explain it away.

Does this sound familiar? If so, take time to examine what you truly believe about God’s plan for sexuality in your life. His plan is perfect. After all, he invented sex.  If you truly believe God’s plan, then realize that you cannot be pure on your own strength. To start, take these steps:

• Surrender your sexual sin to Christ and admit that you cannot be pure on your own.
• The Holy Spirit will give you strength and guidance.
• Put some safeguards into place to make it easier for you to succeed, like accountability software on your computer.
• Take time each day to study the Bible and commit passages to memory.

There is hope that you can live a pure life with God’s help!

 1 Corinthians 6:18-Flee from sexual immorality. Every other sin a person commits is outside the body, but the sexually immoral person sins against his own body. (ESV)