One Think Leads to Another

           You may have heard that expression, “One thing leads to another.” You start doing one thing and soon you find that you have progressed to another. I don't know hoe many times I have opened a bag of potato chips intending to eat only one and end up eating more than I should and then wondering why I ate as many as I did. Well, one chip led to another. It's like when when we go into the grocery store to purchase just one item and then we think that while we are there, we might as well pick up a few more things and soon you have a basket full of items that you really didn't intend to purchase that day. If you purchase chips, you might as well get dip and if you get dip you might as well get some diet cola and so on. The items are all connected in your basket. The Apostle Paul gave us a “basket” of things in Colossians 3. Colossians 3:8 says, "But now ye also put off all these; anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, filthy communication out of your mouth."   

          There are two lists of sins that are mentioned in this passage. Both passages, one in verse 5 and the other one in verse 8 contain 5 sins. Verse 5 goes from Fornication to covetousness and the above passage goes from anger to filthy communication coming out of your mouth. Verse 5 goes from the greater to the lesser and verse 8 goes from the lesser to the greater. Verse 5 deals with sexual sins and verse 8 deals with speech sins. The lesser in both categories cannot be seen or heard by anyone else. No one knows when you covet another person or thing and certainly know one knows you are getting angry. Both of them begin in the mind. Both list were common in the days of Paul and certainly both lists are common in life today. The speech sins when coupled with the Epistle of James focus on the words that we often say and then regret that we ever said them but the process of going from anger to filthy words coming out of your mouth happens all too often. By the time it gets to malice, words are flying off of your tongue and then it keeps on going. When the words fly out of your mouth, there is little you can do to retrieve them. It is like putting tooth paste back into the tube. It's out and there is nothing that you can do about it. Oh, we try to say, “I didn't mean that.” or we may try as hard as we can to apologize then or later, but the deed was done. Both listing of sins, sexual and speech, needed to be nipped in the bud, so to speak. When anger starts we all need to give it to the Lord quickly and when covetousness begins, we need also to immediately give it to the Lord. If you don't do it, then the “one thing leads to another” will go on to the next step and the process will soon be in its final stage. Colossians goes on to give us the answer in the rest of the third chapter when our attention is turned to the Lord Jesus Christ and a new list of things that we should be doing appears in verses twelve to seventeen. Only you know when “anger” begins to surface in your mind. By the time your face gets red, you are probably in stage two and the thoughts of “wrath” are already present. The natural tendency for people today is to “get even” as soon as possible and if you are not careful you will regret the results. So, don't let one thing lead to another but turn it over to the Lord right when it begins and you know it will begin at one time or another and not when you might expect it. Praise God that He can renew your mind.