Lessons from the Saints: Joseph and Resisting Sin

Read: Genesis 39 (emphasis on 39:6b-13)

Joseph has been betrayed by his brothers and sold into slavery. Now in slavery the Lord has shown favor on him and helped him to find success even as a slave. He becomes second only to the master of the house, Potiphar. But the Lord is not the only one who showed Joseph favor. As he worked in the house of Potiphar, Potiphar's wife also became interested in Joseph. She continually tried to get him to sin, but he resisted. Finally when he was alone with her and tempted he ran away, resisting sin.

In doing so he became an example to us all on the how to resist sin rather than give into it. Through his story and principles taught in Scripture we can learn how to also resist sin rather than give into it.

First a definition of sin to understand what it is.

Sin: Deciding to live your life your way instead of God's way; it's saying you know better than God.

God has told us how we should live in a way that brings Him honor and means only good things for us. But in sinning we are saying that we know better than He does what is good for us.

How to overcome sin:

1) Decide that you will resist sin and live for Christ.

see: Joshua 24:14-15; James 4:7; 1 Peter 5:8-9

If we are going to resist sin we need to first make a decision on how we will deal with it before we are faced with temptation. It is nearly impossible to make a Godly decision against sin when faced with sin if we haven't decided before hand how to handle the temptation. We have to decide that we will serve Christ rather than ourselves.

2) Prepare accordingly

Study Scripture, get accountability partners, have quiet time alone with the Lord, fast, etc. All these activities help place our minds on Christ and help us to either learn about a life of holiness or help us to quiet our hearts and give us strength to resist sin. Jesus, when He was tempted spent forty days fasting in preparation. How could we not prepare if Christ Himself had to.

3) Call sin sin

see: Genesis 39: 9

I believe that what helped Joseph in resisting sin was that he decided before the temptation that what Potiphar's wife was asking him to do was sin. Then when faced with the temptation head on he did not try to justify it, he called it out as sin. He said that what she wanted to do was a sin against God. We need to do the same thing. When in the face of temptation we need to admit that its sin (even saying it outloud). "No, I'm gonna do [insert sin here], because it is sin, and will dishonor God who has saved me from my sin."

4) Run away from temptation

see: Genesis 39:12, 1 Corinthians 6:18-19; 1 Corinthians 10:14; 1 Timothy 6:9-11; 2 Timothy 2:22

The biggest mistake we can make in sinning is thinking we are strong enough to face temptation and logic our way out of it. We can't do it. I know I can't. When face with temptation we need to run away. Just go! Don't stand around. Don't debate, get yourself away from the temptation. Just like Joseph did. So when you face sin- RUN! RUN! RUN! Are your friends gossipping and you feel yourself wanting to join them? Walk away! Fighting with your sister? Walk away. Watching bad stuff on tv? Turn off the tv and go do something else with your time. Just run away!

this week we will talk about how the 5 Pillars of the JHC can help us in resisting sin.

Lessons from the Saints: Jacob and Esau and Forgiveness

See: Genesis 32-33 (with specific emphasis on Genesis 33:1-11)

(note: I know this is a longer explanation than normal but should be helpful in understanding both the overall story of Genesis and the topic of forgiveness in the story of Jacob and Esau.)

A major purpose in writing of Genesis is to explain where the nation of Israel came from. The man Jacob is one of the most important people in answering that question. It is Jacob who, after going through discipline by God and learning from his sins, is renamed Israel by God Himself. Jacob had twelves sons from whom would come the twelve tribes of Israel, making up the nation of Israel.

Jacob was not ever deserving of this role as father of God's chosen nation. Genesis 25-32 give various examples of how underhanded and manipulative Jacob was. He was not a moral example to be followed often in his life. His immorality was often mostly directed at his older (well just a few minutes older, they were twins) brother Esau with whom he constantly competed.

Jacob tricked his brother out of his birthright (Esau as the older brother would have gotten the greater portion of their father's wealth when he died had he not given it over to Jacob) in a moment when Esau was weak and thought he would die. Then when it was time for their father to die he called to Esau asking him to cook him food and then he would be blessed by his father and inherit the promises given to him by God (that he would be the father of a nation that outnumbered the stars in the sky). When Jacob heard about this he impersonated his brother and tricked his father into giving him the blessing instead of Esau.

Fearing Esau would kill him Jacob ran away and they did not see each other for twenty years.

This brings us to Genesis 32-33 where we see Jacob do all he can to make peace with his brother and Esau forgiving Jacob for the wrong he had done.

From this story we look at the idea of forgiveness. If Esau can forgive his brother for all the wrong he had done to him, then we can also be people who forgive. Here are a few notes on living a life of forgiveness.

Forgiveness:

see: Genesis 33:1-1

1) has no limits
see: Matthew 18: 21-22

If Esau never forgave his brother people would have understood that. His brother did not deserve that forgiveness. In the same way we are called to unconditionally forgive all the time. No matter what people have done to us we are to be people who forgive.

2) Is complete
see: Psalm 103:12

Once we have forgiven someone they are completely forgiven for it. We are told that God has forgiven us of our sin and separated it from us as far as the east is from the west, which means we are completely forgiven of that sin and it is permanently removed from us. God does not remind us of our sin. So we cannot forgive someone and then remind them of that same sin later on. We don't hold things against people, we forgive and move on.

3) Is commanded in the Bible
see: Ephesians 4:32; Matthew 18:23-35; Colossians 3:13

Over an over again we are commanded to forgive others of the wrong they have done to us. We aren't given an option. We are to be people who forgive. When this commandment is given it is given with God as the ultimate example of someone who forgives.

4) Is modeled by Christ.
see: 1 John 1:9; Colossians 3:13; Ephesians 1:7

We are told to forgive just as Christ forgave us. We are able to forgive because Christ forgave us. He provides the example of the forgiving person. There is nothing in this world anyone could do to us that is worse than the sin we have committed against God. But because He loves us He forgave us and made a way for us to have a relationship with Him again through His death and resurrection. Through the work of the Holy Spirit we are being made more like Christ. One of Christ's great characteristics is unconditional forgiveness. Since He forgave us we need to forgive those who do wrong to us.