Indwelling Sin

Over my Christmas break, I have begun to dive headlong into my reading, finishing up about five books I started in the fall. While reading these books, I am once again reminded at the wealth of wisdom past saints still hold for us, and how lamentable it is that we are often so ignorant we are of these gems. In his magnificent book, The Reformed Pastor, the seventeenth century Puritan Richard Baxter writes the following helpful comment on how to mortify (kill) sin:

To be much in provoking others to repentance and heavenly-mindedness may do much to excite them in ourselves. To cry down the sin of others, and engage them against it, and direct them to overcome it, will do much to shame us out of our own; and conscience will scarcely suffer us to live in that which we make so much ado to draw others from.

I doubt Baxter would have Christians be hypocrites. To condemn sin, while still living in it and not having a desire to be rid of it is a damnable sin. What Baxter speaks of here is that in our struggle with sin, Pastors should express a hatred for sin by not only self-watch, but also by pleading for their parishioners to repent. Calling others to repent will sharpen your perception of sin, and it should lead to a weakening of it in your own life.

Baxter also suggests that idleness and excessive solitude are pits that become a breeding ground for sin. He continues:

Even our constant employment for God, and busying our minds and tongues against sin, and for Christ and holiness, will do much to overcome our fleshly inclinations, both by direct mortification, and by diversion, leaving our fancies no room nor time for their employment. All the austerities of monks and hermits, who addict themselves to unprofitable solitude, and who think to save themselves by neglecting to show compassion to others, will not do near so much in the true work of mortification, as this fruitful diligence for Christ.