Lesson for March 20, 2024
Mental Attitude Sins
Implacable
Implacable is defined as uncompromising, unforgiving, unrelenting, or unyielding. When applied to spiritual matters, implacable means a believer is unable to be persuaded of the truth. The Greek word for implacable is “aspondos,” meaning without libation. Without a libation (a drink), a person is unable to quench their thirst. Thus, the meaning is to refuse to accept the truth from God’s Word. It is also translated trucebreaker in some translations of the Bible. Believers break a truce they have with God, which begins at the moment of salvation, when they fail to live their spiritual lives. These believers are unable to quench their thirst for the pleasures of life and begin to fall farther into carnality, over a period of time.
You probably know or have known a person who cannot be persuaded of the truth regardless of how it is presented to them, or the accompanying proof provided to them. When a believer is out of fellowship with God for a prolonged period of time and enters a state of reversionism, they often become implacable and refuse to recognize or acknowledge their spiritual status. This attitude brings self-induced misery and divine discipline, as a result.
Reversionism is the condition of a believer that is negative toward Bible doctrine and as a result has stopped growing spiritually. It is failure to follow God’s plan of living the Christian Way of Life. A reversionist is a believer in perpetual carnality, out of fellowship with God, and controlled by their sin nature. (If you are not advancing toward spiritual maturity as a Christian, you are retreating into reversionism).
The Bible says that reversionists are enemies of God, enemies of the Cross, children of the devil, double-minded, and unstable in all their ways. Since they do not continue in the teaching of Christ, the Bible says they delude themselves, they lack faith, they faint in their minds, they are prisoners to sin, they have come short of the grace of God by engaging in legalism, their souls are tortured, and they are subject to divine discipline. The Bible says reversionists have left their first love (Christ), fallen away from their spiritual lives, and have become “lukewarm” believers (have no interest in God or His Word). (James 4:4; Philippians 3:18-19; I John 3:10; James 1:8, 4:8; II John 9; James 1:22-24; Romans 7:23; Hebrews 12:3-15; II Peter 2:7-8; Revelation 2)
Some believers start their Christian lives very well, under sound, accurate doctrinal teaching from their pastor-teacher and stay with it. Others wander off spiritually immediately after salvation and remain in a state of reversionism until they die. Then we have Christians who begin well by studying and applying Bible doctrine on a consistent basis but finish poorly by neglecting it or failing to apply it. We all have equal opportunity to succeed or to fail in the Christian Way of Life. Success depends on positive volition towards Bible doctrine.
When a believer abandons Bible doctrine, it is a short step into the arrogance complex of sins. These sins are self-justification, self-deception, and self-absorption. Being no longer influenced by the doctrine in their souls, these believers become totally preoccupied with themselves. This, of course, is a huge distraction to any believer attempting to fulfill God’s plan. The arrogance complex leads believers into all kinds of sin, especially mental attitude sins and eventuates in reversionism.
First, in an attempt to justify their actions, believers fail to take responsibility for their own bad decisions. Remember that the ends never justify the means in the Christian Way of Life. Failure to take responsibility for your own actions leads to the next step, self-deception. Self-deception is exactly what it sounds like, a believer out of fellowship with God and controlled by their sin nature deceiving themselves into believing that their actions are justified. This mental attitude
leads these believers into the next step, self-absorption. Self-absorption is total
preoccupation with self. Unable to concentrate on anything other than “my
problems,” a believer begins their slide downhill into a state of reversionism.
As the slide continues, a reversionistic believer is distracted by the details of life and reacts to everyone and everything in a negative manner. Pleasure, people, or profession are put before God, His Plan and His Word. The result is a series of bad decisions from a position of weakness. As the spiritual nature is starved (no application of Bible doctrine) and the sin nature is fed, this believer sinks deeper into the quagmire of reversionism, and implacability has taken complete control of their thinking.
In a frantic search for happiness, which for a believer can be found only from the execution of the spiritual life, a reversionsist acts out whatever the particular trend of their sin nature happens to be. They may become legalistic, forcing their ideas of spirituality upon all around them. Thought of by many as a “spiritual giant,” they are in fact an enemy of God. Carried to its fullest extent, legalism results in pseudo-spirituality by good works, Christian activism (trying to reform the devil’s world), tabooism, or emotionalism, all of which are evil. These reversionistic trends lead to a life of self-induced misery.
As a reversionist moves further away from God, their conscience becomes more and more seared, their norms and standards revert to human viewpoint and the scar tissue on their soul begins to build. Capacity for life is replaced with the temporary happiness of the world: money, power, social status, and material possessions. What a person thought was going to bring them lasting happiness only brings delusion. Delusion leads to frustration, discouragement, and even depression. And nothing will appease them because they have become implacable in their thinking, attitudes, and actions. (I Timothy 4:2)