What does Tribe teach about killing sin?
Drawn from the messages where it was actually addressed: the words said from the front, the passages taught, and where to hear the whole thing.
At Tribe, the teaching on killing sin starts with the same command God gave Israel on the edge of the promised land. In Deuteronomy 7, Moses told a new generation to drive out the seven nations completely, destroy their altars, and make no deals. The reasoning was not cruelty but protection. Justin Waters, who brought this message, moved quickly from that command to Judges 1 and 2 to show what actually happened: tribe after tribe left the job unfinished, settled for a practical arrangement with the enemy, and found exactly the thorn and snare God had warned about. The point was not a history lesson. It was a mirror.
Justin named three forces pulling a person toward walking in sin and trespass, drawn from Ephesians 2: the world, the devil, and the flesh. Of the three, the flesh got the most time. Reading through Galatians 5, he noted that the works of the flesh are described as evident while the fruit of the Spirit often has to be searched for. Romans 8 pressed further: to set the mind on the flesh is death, and that mind is hostile to God. Justin did not hold any of this at arm's length. He said those verses had described him far too recently, that he had believed the lie that whatever his flesh wanted it deserved, that he had shown up, served faithfully, said the right things, and still felt like he was living a double life because he was not submitted to God's law. He compared himself directly to Israel: given the chance to cut sin out, he had chosen instead to isolate and hide his heart from people who loved him.
The way forward the teaching pressed toward is not passive restraint but an active putting to death. Galatians 5 says those who belong to Christ have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires, and that past tense matters. The victory is already secured. What remains is the willingness to finish the job, to stop coddling what God has already condemned. Justin put it plainly: "It's cost me way more to coddle and pamper my flesh than it has to crucify it." The posture the teaching calls for is the same ruthlessness God required of Israel, applied now toward the sin we harbor inside ourselves, not protected from others, not bargained with, but devoted to destruction.
Taught from Deuteronomy 7:1-5 · Galatians 5:24-25 · Romans 8:5-8 · Ephesians 2:1-5 · Judges 2:1-3
“It's cost me way more to coddle and pamper my flesh than it has to crucify it.”
From Devoted to Destruction
The passage taught · 1 John 1:5-9
5 This is the message which we have heard from him and announce to you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all.
6 If we say that we have fellowship with him and walk in the darkness, we lie, and don’t tell the truth.
7 But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ, his Son, cleanses us from all sin.
8 If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.
World English Bible
Messages that go deeper
- April 15, 2024 Devoted to Destruction A guest speaker leads Tribe church through Deuteronomy, Galatians and Romans, calling believers to stop coddling sin and ruthlessly cut out whatever pulls them from God.
- April 14, 2024 Devoted to Destruction A guest speaker at a Wyoming church walks through Scripture on why followers of Jesus must fully destroy sinful patterns rather than make room for them.