Be Killing Sin, or It Will Be Killing You
By Michael Kelley
The 17th century Puritan, John Owen, once wrote: “Be killing sin, or it will be killing you.”
That’s exactly what Paul tells us to do in Colossians 3:
Therefore, put to death what belongs to your earthly nature… (Colossians 3:5).
We died with Christ, have been raised to new life in Him, and so we respond by making choices that are consistent with our new identity in Jesus. That’s why we are to put to death all those things that remain from our old nature. But how are we to do so?
In a word, we are to do so ruthlessly. Mercilessly. That phrase - put to death - in Colossians 3:5 is exceptionally strong. In fact, it’s one of the violent and extreme metaphors Paul uses for Christian sanctification.
In Greek medical literature, this is the word used to describe atrophy. That’s when a limb has grown entirely dead and withered and must be cut off. So the root word here means to turn into a corpse. What’s more, the expression is in the aorist imperative tense. That’s the verb tense used to signify a sharp, decisive command that requires urgent action.
Paul doesn’t say grow beyond sin. He doesn’t say coddle it until you learn a different practice. He doesn’t say keep it to yourself because it’s not hurting anyone. And he doesn’t say to manage it or just limit your bad habits. He says to kill it and to do it now. With urgency.
The Puritans had a word for this - Mortification. Mortification is about death. Killing sin as violently and as often as necessary. It’s waging all out war against what is contrary to life in Christ. It’s about recognizing the reality that we died when we came into Christ. And yet the remnants of that former self still cling doggedly to us, and that’s why we must also “put to death.” In other words, because we have died, we must daily die. That’s mortification, and it involves the daily battle against the self.
And that is a fight. You and I both know that sin has a zombie-like quality to it. That is, you kill it, and it keeps coming back. So what do you do then? At the risk of being too simple, you kill it again. And again. And you keep killing it. Daily you wake up and kill it. You kill it through what you choose to set your mind on. You kill it through what you choose to seek. And you enlist the help of others to keep killing it. And you keep doing it every single day. It is a fight, and it is hard.
But the Puritans used another word that helps us in this fight, and that word is vivification. Vivification is more positive. That word comes from the Latin roots for “alive” and “make”. It refers to the work of the Holy Spirit by which a believer is spiritually energized, renewed, and enabled to live a life of joyful obedience to God. It is not just about stopping bad behavior; it is about the supernatural infusion of holy desires, love for God, and righteous living. Whereas mortification is about the removal of sin and its causes, vivification is about stirring up your affections for Jesus in a positive manner. It’s about reminding yourself of the beauties and excellencies found in Jesus alone.
The thing is that the two must work in harmony with each other. Think of it like this:
Let’s say that you resolve that you are going to drastically reduce the amount of time you spend looking at your phone. You have recognized that your greed and jealousy and all other kinds of desires are kindled the more you look at your phone, so you resolve to kill those things, and part of that killing is putting down your phone. Now a big part of seeing that goal come to reality is the act of putting down your phone. It’s consciously choosing not to check Twitter or Instagram when you have a few free minutes. That’s the mortification. But that negative goal will only get you part of the way there.
To really press into the goal, you need to realize that you will suddenly have three or four extra hours to fill in the day if you really do put the phone down. So what will you do with it? The answer is to find something more constructive, more edifying, more useful, and more beautiful than what you are leaving behind. You need something better to fill the gap left by something worse.
And this is why we must, as Christians, be adept at both mortification and vivification. Oh, how embittered, dispassionate life would be if all we ever did as Christians was practice mortification. Like those walking around in sackcloth and ashes, we would be devoid of real joy and eternal happiness. Consider, then, for example, how unbridled life would be if all we ever practiced was vivification. Like those who treat sin as a game with no real consequences, we would see the world – and ourselves – through rose colored glasses.
They are two sides of the same coin.
We fight sin. We battle it. We kill it. But anyone who has waged this kind of war will tell you that the removal of any sinful habit, especially one we hold closely to our hearts, leaves an incredible void in its absence. We wonder if we can even go on, for we’ve come to look forward to that sin. We crave it. We think about it and nurture it.
What can fill the void left by mortification? Vivification.
The void is not only filled, but we find ourselves overflowing. We kill and we fill. We fight and we feast. We remove and we indulge.
Michael Kelley is a husband, father of three, author, and speaker from Nashville, TN. His latest book is a year-long family devotional guide called The Whole Story for the Whole Family. Find his personal blog at michaelkelley.co.
