Colossians 3:5-10 Put to death, therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly nature: sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires and greed, which is idolatry. Because of these, the wrath of God is coming. You used to walk in these ways, in the life you once lived. But now you must rid yourselves of all such things as these: anger, rage, malice, slander, and filthy language from your lips. Do not lie to each other, since you have taken off your old self with its practices and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge in the image of its Creator.
The key to putting the things mentioned in verse 5-9 is verse 10. "Put on the new self, which is being renewed in the knowledge in the image of its Creator." Pjillippians 4:8-9 gives us some insight to this new self, "Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things. Whatever you have learned or received or heard from me, or seen in me—put it into practice. And the God of peace will be with you." Now obviously the new self begins with a relationship with Christ and is developed over time as we walk with Him. However in these verses we find the exact opposite of the Colossians passage and one that I believe is crucial to putting on the new self. This putting on carries with it the idea of getting dressed and getting ready to face the day. We would not face it naked, no we must cloth ourselves and we will. Either we will choose to cloth ourselves in righteousness which comes from Christ or self-righteousness which comes from ourselves. The choice is our today may we choose to put on the new self.
Father give me the strength today to put on the new self which you began in my life some time ago. May I live in such a way that others see in my you and may my life and actions reflect that of putting on the new self.
The thing that strikes me about this passage is that we are commanded to "put to death" the things that are worldly. In other words, we are to engage in summary execution of the entire list: sexual immorality, impurity, lust, and greed. This means that they should no longer exist, we are to purge them. In order to do that we also have to eliminate the elements in our lives that allow these things to be present. We can only do this by the Holy Spirit. In order to eradicate these enemies to our walk with Christ we need to call in a strike of Holy Napalm. We should come to love "the smell of God's napalm in the morning" as we come to Him asking for His help to face the day. Prayer, Bible, Prayer, Bible, Prayer, Bible...this is how we should start our day. I know it's difficult to make the time but the real question is...what is truly important???
ReplyDeleteColossians 3:4 -- "When the Messiah --who is your LIFE- is revealed, then you will also be revealed with Him in glory."
Is He REALLY your LIFE or is He just a part of your LIFE???
This is the question we must all wrestle with. My prayer is that God will pin each of us and we will yield to His will, "setting our minds on what is above, NOT on what is on earth."
Soldier On!!!