Struggle
A visual expression of an inward feeling
5 Therefore put to death your members which are on the earth: fornication, uncleanness, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry. 6 Because of these things the wrath of God is coming upon the sons of disobedience, 7 in which you yourselves once walked when you lived in them.
8 But now you yourselves are to put off all these: anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, filthy language out of your mouth. 9 Do not lie to one another, since you have put off the old man with his deeds, 10 and have put on the new man who is renewed in knowledge according to the image of Him who created him, 11 where there is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcised nor uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave nor free, but Christ is all and in all. 12 Therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, put on tender mercies, kindness, humility, meekness, longsuffering; 13 bearing with one another, and forgiving one another, if anyone has a complaint against another; even as Christ forgave you, so you also must do. 14 But above all these things put on love, which is the bond of perfection. (Col 3:5-14)
To live as a christian: Put off the old man
This letter from Paul to the Colossians speaks about how to live as a christian. What Paul asks these people is to put off their old self, and indirectly it asks us to put off our old self. It means that we lay down ourselves and all of our sins at the feet of Jesus, and we leave them there. Nowhere does Jesus ask to lay our sin down and pick them up a moment later. Nowhere does Jesus say that we can hold on to our sin. We are asked to lay down our sin, and to pick up our cross. (Luke 14:27) We choose sin, or we choose Jesus. You can't have both of them, although many people think this is possible.
It is clear what our old self is: "fornication, uncleanness, passion, evil desire, idolatry, anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, filthy language, lying" and many things more which is not discussed in this letter.
We see these things a lot in the world. According to the world it is okay to do sexually whatever is pleasing to you, there are almost no limits to it. It is okay to put your own desires and feelings above everything and everyone else. It is okay to use the name of Jesus in vain and to use it as a filth word or make caricatures of Jesus, although many wouldn't dare to do this with Mohammed (which is pure hypocrisy)
And the sad part is that some christians can be okay with these things. We don't think God has standards on how to express us sexually. We think it is okay to put ourselves always first and do whatever we want without thinking about others. We think it is not a big problem to watch television shows where the name of Jesus is dragged through the dirt, where our Savior is ridiculed and mocked.
We must be careful not to merge too much with the wisdom and thoughts of the world we live in. Jesus says that we live in the world, but we are not of it. But too many times we are of the world.
If the world consumes our thinking, we begin to look like it. We then begin to speak like it. We begin to act like it. We begin to be like it. And finally, we are of it. Eventually, there is no difference to be seen between a child of God and a child of satan. Let's make a nuance here to be clear on what I mean. There is a difference between someone who is struggling with sin and is fighting against it, and someone who is openly rebelling against God and loves his sin. The first one is someone who loves God, the second one isn't.
I will be honest. This can be a struggle. It's a struggle that everyone of us has in one way or another. As christians we live in an 'already but not yet' situation. We are forgiven of our sin when we put our trust in Jesus. We are made righteous. But still, we live in our sinful flesh. It is as if somebody is holding tightly unto your leg. That 'somebody' is our sin that doesn't want to let go. In the meanwhile you constantly try to shake it off. To say it bluntly, it's a pain in the butt.
To live as a christian: Put on the new man
Coming back to the tekst of Colossians. We are asked to put on our new man. It is also clear what the new man is: "mercies, kindness, humility, meekness, longsuffering; bearing with one another, forgiving one another" and yet again many things more like the fruit of the Spirit mentioned in Galatians 5.
We see a crystal clear difference between the old and the new man. The old man belonged to the world. The new man belongs to Jesus. There is a sharp contrast in the wisdom of the world and the wisdom of God. It is a difference of night and day. But we don't always see these differences between children of the day and children of the night.
Concluding
My friend, if you struggle with sin, I want to encourage you to seek Jesus. Seek Him again and again and again. Acknowledge that you can't do it on your own. Acknowledge that you need Him and turn from your sin. Many places in the bible say that God will resist the proud, but He gives grace to the humble.
And this counts for people who don't yet believe in Jesus as well. Seek Him, and He will answer. He will not cast you out. He will welcome you with open arms, no matter what horrible things you have done. It is a lie if you think that Jesus can't help you. Nobody is too wretched for Jesus.
He will never resist those who are humble and acknowledge their desperate state. Instead, He will give grace to them, He will save them, He will liberate them.
The next time you're battling your sin, know that He is there when you struggle.