prayer, and an inability to commit oneself to God—all these are sins
8 The Life that Wins
Eight Kinds of Failures among Christians
What kind of life are we living? Do we live under the bondage of the law of sin? Is it true in our experience that "to will is present with me, but to do that which is good is not" (Rom. 7.18)? Is our life defeated and bound by sin? God gives us such a glorious life, and yet we live in defeat. According to the record of the Scriptures and as concurred in by our experience, we may conclude from our investigation that there are eight different kinds of failure or sin to be seen in Christians.
1. Sins of the Spirit. Pride, jealousy, unbelief, fault-finding, lack of prayer, and an inability to commit oneself to God—all these are sins of the spirit. Though some Christians are spiritually victorious, others find themselves defeated in this particular area.
Pride itself had once troubled me. All who are proud have committed this sin of the spirit. A proud person is unable to consider others as more excellent than he. This is not only true in worldly matters but is also true in spiritual ones. If anyone else seems to be superior to the proud person in spiritual things, the latter will always try to find fault with that one. He will attempt to put him down.
Jealousy is sin, whether it appears in work or in spiritual matters.
Some are filled with an evil heart of unbelief. If a person is asked if he believes, he will answer that he believes in every word of God. But if he be questioned as to whether he really believes in God's promise, he finds himself unable to believe. A little trial will upset him, because he cannot trust God's word. On one occasion Martin Luther's wife had put on mourning dress and then challenged her husband with these words: "I have put on mourning dress today because you worry so much as though to say that your God is dead." Is the same true of us in our day?