Popeye’s confession
September 20, 2007
By Jerry Scott
The little cartoon sailor Popeye was an unassuming guy who faced villains, particularly a huge rival sailor named Bluto, who desired Popeye’s destruction or at least his girl, Olive Oyl. At the moment when all seemed lost, Popeye managed to defeat his foes by consuming a can of spinach, which made a miraculous trip to his amazing forearms.
But it is one of Popeye’s signature lines I’d like you to consider — “I y’am what I y’am and that’s alls I y’am!”
Popeye was the same, never changing, and seemed comforted by this declaration. It was his way of saying, “Don’t ask me to adapt, to change, or to adjust. I’m just Popeye, the sailor man.” Toot, toot!
Many followers of Christ make the Popeye confession and remain stuck in their old patterns of life. Are you one of those believers who are convinced they are who they are? Do you see your personality and habits as unchangeable? Have you come to Christ for forgiveness and then settled into a pattern of challenge, failure, shame, repentance, restoration … only to do it all over again and again and again?
Then, you’ve believed a lie! Each one of us deals with tendencies to sin, and we will fight temptation until the day of our transformation from creatures of this world into eternal citizens of glory. But understanding and accepting the reality of our sinful nature must not keep us from the sure promise a spiritual nature is made alive in us by the Spirit when we come to Christ!
These two natures are in conflict, but if we believe we are hapless victims of sin and Satan we have not really accepted the full truth of the good news of Jesus Christ. In Him we can and should grow spiritually and gain increasing victory over sin!
Let me illustrate from my own experience. Since childhood I have dealt with a temperament prone to anger. I am not proud of that, nor does it please me to admit to episodes of ungodly anger in the record of my life. In my youth, I readily gave vent to my anger, accepting it as “just who I am.” For years I hid behind Popeye’s confession! I excused my outbursts as an inevitable expression of my personality.
The Spirit of God and the Word spoke to me and showed me what I tried to excuse was in reality a sin against others and against God. God called me to change, a process which is ongoing by His grace and with great effort! Am I still tempted by anger? Yes! Am I still prone to outbursts? No! The Spirit of God is working with me and in me. Praise Him!
Peter writes to believers with the message that change is not only possible, but required.
“May God give you more and more grace and peace as you grow in your knowledge of God and Jesus our Lord. … The promises … enable you to share his divine nature and escape the world’s corruption caused by human desires” (2 Peter 1:2,4, NLT).
Peter envisions a process of change — building a life one choice at a time as God empowers us — that demonstrates the character of Jesus. God does not ask us to do it all by ourselves, nor does He offer to do everything for us!
“Make every effort to respond to God’s promises. Supplement your faith with a generous provision of moral excellence, and moral excellence with knowledge, and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with patient endurance, and patient endurance with godliness, and godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love for everyone. The more you grow like this, the more productive and useful you will be in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. But those who fail to develop in this way are shortsighted or blind, forgetting that they have been cleansed from their old sins. So, dear brothers and sisters, work hard to prove that you really are among those God has called and chosen. Do these things, and you will never fall away” (2 Peter 1:5-10).
Don’t make peace with temptation. Don’t invite sin to live in your house. It is a terrible guest that moves in, takes over, and brings undesirables by the dozen. Instead, admit to God where there are gaps between who you are and who you know He wants you to be. Then, begin to change. Learn the truth about who He is, what He has promised, and the power He provides. Create strategies for the defeat of evil. Build alliances that strengthen spiritual resolve. Change today!
Take this word from the Word and believe it: “You were taught about Jesus Christ. He is the truth, and you heard about him and learned about him. You were told that your foolish desires will destroy you and that you must give up your old way of life with all its bad habits. Let the Spirit change your way of thinking and make you into a new person. You were created to be like God, and so you must please him and be truly holy” (Ephesians 4:20-24, CEV).
Jerry D. Scott is senior pastor of Washington (N.J.) Assembly of God.
“We do have a problem in our society and even in the church world. We discount the value of spoken words. We adopt the patterns of speech used in modern media. We even deny personal responsibility for what we say. But the Scriptures are clear: ‘If anyone considers himself religious and yet does not keep a tight rein on his tongue, he deceives himself and his religion is worthless’ (James 1:26, NIV).”
“Clean Speech,” Gary Denbow
Today’s Pentecostal Evangel, September 16, 2007
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