This post is a follow-up message from Pastor Ben's sermon entitled "On Vices & Virtues". [Watch video]

This past Sunday we saw the list of vices we are to excise from our lives: bitterness, wrath, anger, shouting, slander, and malice (Ephesians 4:31). But we must realize that these are more than bad habits we need to kick. You can break a bad habit by sheer will power over a period of time. You can stop smoking, swearing, eating too many Twinkies, throttle back on your way-out-of-proportion internet surfing or Netflix binging—all by making a resolution and keeping it. But if we break a bad habit (or start a good one for that matter) have we really changed? We may have changed our behavior, but have we fundamentally changed who we are?

Just stopping the sins in this list isn’t really what the Apostle Paul had in mind. He wasn’t exhorting us to simply change our behavior, rather, to change our behavior because of the change that has already occurred in our hearts by being a new creation in Christ. We are not who we once were (thank God!). We are now changed into a new person and therefore able to change our behavior. Jesus said in Mark 7, "That which proceeds out of the man, that is what defiles the man. For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed the evil thoughts, fornications, thefts, murders, adulteries, deeds of coveting and wickedness, as well as deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride and foolishness. All these evil things proceed from within and defile the man.”

What comes out of our mouth originates in the heart. This is a matter of the heart, not the mouth. If you have heart disease, it’s not enough to act like you don’t! That’s why in the next verse in Ephesians we are to “become" kind, compassionate, and forgiving (4:32). This change is the continued work of God’s Spirit in our heart. Our part? Obey what God says, knowing and believing (that’s faith!) He’s given you the capability to change and is continually working in your heart to make you more like His Son. Good news!