As God continues to sanctify us (make us more like Christ), removing the bad from our nature and replacing it with the Fruit of the Spirit (Gal 5:22-23) we should find that we commit sins less often. That's just basic to following Christ. But following Christ is more than putting a stop to our bad behavior, it's doing the things he asks us to do. After Jesus gave us the part of the Great Commission (Matthew 28:19-20) that everyone seems to recite; "Go into all the world and make disciples" there is a second part to that commission that says, "teaching them to obey my commandments".
I see three basic steps to following Jesus. First we decide to follow Jesus and are continually sanctified throughout our lifetime as we spend time with Him in prayer and in the Word. Then we begin to tell others about Jesus (the first step in making disciples). Then we teach them to obey what He commands. I think this third step is often missed in our own lives, let alone our discipleship of others. We are very focused on making "converts" and helping them get over their sinfulness, without teaching them Jesus' commands (or even following them ourselves).
I've thought about this a lot the last several months (or more) and it occurs to me that I need to have a good understanding of what Jesus commands me to do. I've decided to use the list of 49 commands of Jesus from "The Institute in Basic Life Principles" (http://iblp.org/questions/what-are-commands-christ) in my own study of what Jesus asks of us. I intend to use this blog to post my thoughts and notes from my own study. I don't know where this will go or if it will be worth while for anyone else to read, but I'm going to put it out there instead of leaving it in a notebook somewhere.
Stay tuned for command number one: Repent
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