The Choices We Make

Hallelujah one day we will be released from this fleshly body and given a new one!!!!

People are not animals who respond to stimuli.

Human beings can and have been mean to someone because they did something nice and it makes the other person feel guilty. People operate from self more than they do from unselfishness.

Animals operate from instinct for survival. If you show kindness and love to an animal they will respond with loyalty.

Human beings often show contempt when they are shown love because they interpret love in terms of what they get out of something rather than what might be good for them.

Proverbs 27:6
"Faithful are the wounds of a friend, But deceitful are the kisses of an enemy."

Romans 15:14
"And concerning you, my brethren, I myself also am convinced that you yourselves are full of goodness, filled with all knowledge and able also to admonish one another."

Colossians 3:16
"Let the word of Christ richly dwell within you, with all wisdom teaching and admonishing one another with psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with thankfulness in your hearts to God."

Psalm 141:5
"Let the righteous smite me in kindness and reprove me; It is oil upon the head; Do not let my head refuse it, For still my prayer is against their wicked deeds."

Luke 17:3
"Be on your guard! If your brother sins, rebuke him; and if he repents, forgive him."

1 Thessalonians 5:14
"We urge you, brethren, admonish the unruly, encourage the fainthearted, help the weak, be patient with everyone."

2 Timothy 3:16
"All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness;"

All of the above verses have to do with discipline to redirect the human heart toward goodness. Because the human heart is more inclined toward selfishness that leads to everything evil it must continually be reminded to focus on righteousness.

Those who do not reflect godliness will do what comes naturally, its not instinct but choices that man is faced with every day. They can choose to follow their fallen nature or they can choose to follow Christ Who changes our nature when we become born again.

2 Corinthians 5:17
"17 Therefore if anyone is in Christ, [a]he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come."

The old fallen nature remains in our bodies and must be battled again by the new nature. Animals can be trained to respond to stimuli but human beings must have a changed nature all together to be able to resist the old nature.

Romans 6:6
"6 We know that our old self was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin."

Romans 6:18
"18 and, having been set free from sin, have become slaves of righteousness."

Romans 7:14-25 "14 For we know that the Law is spiritual, but I am of flesh, sold into bondage to sin.
15 For what I am doing, I do not understand; for I am not practicing what I would like to do, but I am doing the very thing I hate.
16 But if I do the very thing I do not want to do, I agree with the Law, confessing that the Law is good.
17 So now, no longer am I the one doing it, but sin which dwells in me.
18 For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh; for the willing is present in me, but the doing of the good is not. 19 For the good that I want, I do not do, but I practice the very evil that I do not want.
20 But if I am doing the very thing I do not want, I am no longer the one doing it, but sin which dwells in me.
21 I find then the principle that evil is present in me, the one who wants to do good.
22 For I joyfully concur with the law of God in the inner man,
23 but I see a different law in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin which is in my members.
24 Wretched man that I am! Who will set me free from the body of this death? 25 Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, on the one hand I myself with my mind am serving the law of God, but on the other, with my flesh the law of sin."