Were entirely ready to have God remove all these defects of character
Matthew 3:1-3 (ESV)
3:1
In those days John the Baptist came preaching in the wilderness of Judea,
3:2
"Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand."
3:3
For this is he who was spoken of by the prophet Isaiah when he said, "The voice of
one crying in the
wilderness: 'Prepare the way of the Lord; make his paths straight.'"
12Step.org Comments:
When John the Baptist was preparing the way for Jesus, he told the people to repent or "make a 180" as we would say in today's vernacular. They were to turn away from their sins in order to be prepared for the Messiah. This we must do also in order to live daily with the Messiah who came, Jesus the Lord. In step 6, we repent of our sins - all of our known sins and not just our addictive behaviors - that we have uncovered in step 4 and confessed in step 5. In this way we can be prepared to also live faithfully with the Messiah on a day-to-day basis.
Romans 6:8-14 (ESV)
6:8
Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him.
6:9
We know that Christ, being raised from the dead, will never die again; death no
longer has dominion over
him.
6:10
For the death he died he died to sin, once for all, but the life he lives he lives
to God.
6:11
So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.
6:12
Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, to make you obey its passions.
6:13
Do not present your members to sin as instruments for unrighteousness, but present
yourselves to God as
those who have been brought from death to life, and your members to God as
instruments for
righteousness.
6:14
For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace.
12Step.org Comments:
The entire chapter of Romans 6 talks of our new life in Christ following a baptism into the likeness of His death. Christ died and then rose again and death has no more dominion over Him. In the same way, as Christians we are to die to sin so that it will not have dominion over us. As addicts, this means that we are to die to those things that once enticed and seduced us. Through the previous steps we should have discovered what this dying means exactly for us in our personal life. We now yield our body to righteousness instead of to the sin of our addictive behaviors. This chapter of Romans makes clear and we also know from experience that this dying to sin is a continual process - "a day at a time", as the 12 step saying goes. We become servants of doing what is right and good and in that we find the freedom that we could never have had in our addictive behaviors.
Galatians 5:1 (ESV)
5:1
For freedom Christ has set us free; stand firm therefore, and do not submit again to
a yoke of slavery.
12Step.org Comments:
In this passage, Paul is talking about whether believers should be circumcised or not, putting themselves under the bondage of the law. Paul points out that they were freed from that law, so be sure not to go back to it. In the context of our addiction. we can say that since we have been freed from our addictive behaviors through the grace of Christ Jesus, then we are not to be entangled again with the yoke of the bondage of our addiction. We are to stand fast, to abide in and remain in the liberty which Christ has given us and set us free. God leaves this choice up to us. We should always remember that the true choice then is not between the "comfort" of our addiction or not, but between liberty and bondage. By now we should be wise enough to choose liberty. That is what the sixth and seventh steps are all about - to make this choice of liberty for our lives and not be entangled again with bondage.
Ephesians 4:17-24 (ESV)
4:17
Now this I say and testify in the Lord, that you must no longer walk as the Gentiles
do, in the futility
of
their minds.
4:18
They are darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God because of
the ignorance that
is in
them, due to their hardness of heart.
4:19
They have become callous and have given themselves up to sensuality, greedy to
practice every kind of
impurity.
4:20
But that is not the way you learned Christ!--
4:21
assuming that you have heard about him and were taught in him, as the truth is in
Jesus,
4:22
to put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt
through deceitful
desires,
4:23
and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds,
4:24
and to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness
and holiness.
12Step.org Comments:
The apostle Paul is telling us as Christians as he did to the Ephesians to make our walk with Christ consistent. We are to discard the defects of character that alienate us from God, for it was not through these defects that we learned Christ. Having completed the 4th and 5th steps, we know that the life of the old man was indeed corrupt through deceitful lusts. We are admonished to put these old things away and to put on the new man and be renewed in our mind instead. That is why God originally created us as He did - to live in righteousness and true holiness.
Colossians 3:5-13 (ESV)
3:5
Put to death therefore what is earthly in you: sexual immorality, impurity, passion,
evil desire, and
covetousness, which is idolatry.
3:6
On account of these the wrath of God is coming.
3:7
In these you too once walked, when you were living in them.
3:8
But now you must put them all away: anger, wrath, malice, slander, and obscene talk
from your mouth.
3:9
Do not lie to one another, seeing that you have put off the old self with its
practices
3:10
and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of
its creator.
3:11
Here there is not Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian,
slave, free; but
Christ is all, and in all.
3:13 bearing with one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive.
12Step.org Comments:
One of the difficult things about getting rid of our addictive behaviors is that they are often wrapped up in so many other parts of our character and habits. In our lives we have learned to accept many character defects in conjunction with our addictive behaviors. Although lying or stealing may not have been our primary addiction, we may have learned to lie or steal or any of a host of other character defects in order to conceal the tracks of our addictive behaviors. By step 6 we have made an inventory and "come clean" with ourselves, our God and someone else about all of these incidents in our lives. Step 6 is about our willingness to not only give up our addictive behaviors, but also all of the character defects that surround them. Of course, this does not make it a "done deal". We will always need to be vigilant against our defects of character. But as Christians, we are called to continually give them up, as outlined in this passage. In that way we will not only be free of our character defects but it will guard against our falling back into our addictive behaviors.
