But you have not so
learned Christ,
if indeed you have
heard Him
and you have been
taught by Him,
as the truth is in
Jesus:
that you've put off,
concerning
your former conduct,
the old man
which grows corrupt
according
to the deceitful
lusts, and be renewed
in the spirit of your
mind, and that you
put on the new man
which was created
according to God, in
true righteousness
and holiness.
Ephesians 4: 20 -- 24
Paul is
writing to those who are attending a congregation and believe that they are
Christian and it is possible that they have not learned Jesus Christ. They may hear the words Jesus Christ, they
may even hear the gospel, and yet they have not heard Him. With all this teaching that they have been
involved in they have yet to be taught by Him.
They've heard the truth but the truth has not made a difference in their
actual understanding of Jesus Christ.
Those who have heard the truth have yet to put off their former conduct,
that old man, that which is in contradiction to the life that Jesus Christ paid once
for all for His children to live. The
old man was a man of lewdness, and uncleanness, and greediness, lustful that is
that you want what you want and you want it now. The lewdness is a word seldom used in today's culture, and in
fact, most people have no idea or little idea as to exactly what that word
means. A lewd person is a person who is
characterized or is incited to lust and is unwilling restrain there
indulgence of lust, and are erotically suggestive and inciting others to
lust. A person who is lewd is one who
is obscene or indecent and is a word that is seldom used today lascivious which
again means be inclined to lustful eroticism, wantonness, arousing sexual
desire. Christians are told to put off
that old man, that former conduct and be renewed in the spirit of your mind and
to put on the new man that was created according to God in true
righteousness. Notice this: it isn't
just righteousness; it is true righteousness.
There is a righteousness that people think that they have according to scripture
when in fact it is not true righteousness.
True Authentic Christians put on true righteousness and
holiness. You cannot be a holy person
and live like you formally did!
Unfortunately many churches has become so liberal that they allow for just
about anything to occur in their church and are happy so long as people are
coming and probably are even happier when those people put money in the
offering plate. We have men and women
who are people of financial means coming to worship God in play clothes, jeans,
T-shirts especially those that have all kinds of writing on them even sometimes
scripture on the shirt (which is not wrong) as though this makes them holy and acceptable to God. Women wearing tight fitting clothes showing
every bit of their body when in fact all it is doing is creating lust in other people. Now, if you do not have
the means to have
proper attire then two things that could occur, you can come in your best clean
clothes, or others could help you to have better clothes. Christians don't look down on people who are in need for it is not the clothes that make a person a Christian. When people come to visit your church do
they see people who are respectable or those who are there as though they are
filling some sort of pious requirement?
Put off the old man! But on the
new man! Quit making excuses! We are coming before our Savior and our God
to worship Him so let us give to Him our very best. Quit looking at your watch as though the pastor is going to
long in his sermon. Quit making things
to do that day that may keep you from keeping the Sabbath holy! Are you or are you not an Authentic
Christian and have Authentic Christian Faith?
What a
blunder is made when we think that the final thing God wants us to do is to simply
have the sacrifice of death. God wants is our sacrifice through
death that is, that which will enable us to do what Jesus did and that is: sacrifice
our lives. This means that you would
become identified with the death of Jesus so that you can sacrifice your life
to God. I would never suggest that you
go around looking pious holy and you go off as some sort of Christian hermit
living in some sort of common group apart from the world and giving up the
things that are good to use in this world.
No! God does not want us to give
up things and God nowhere tells us to give up things for the sake of giving
them up. If you are to give up anything
you give them up for the sake of the only thing that is worth having and that
is the life of Jesus Christ. It
means that we lose those things that are tightening us into this world making
as part of this world than hinder the life and identification with the Jesus
Christ. We must come to the place where
we are identified with His death and to enter into a relationship with God so
that we can sacrifice our lives to Him.
There is no value to God if you do not give your life up to Jesus Christ
and for His death to work through you.
You must become a living sacrifice and let God use all his powers that
saved you and sanctified you through Jesus Christ to become whom spreads the
gospel. This is the thing that is
acceptable to God.
Paul
writes: "Therefore, putting away
lying, ‘let each one of you speak truth with his neighbor,’ (Zechariah 8:16)
for we are members of one another, ‘be That angry, and do not sin’, (Psalm 4:4;
37:8) do not let the sun go down on your wrath, nor give place to the devil"
(Ephesians 4: 25 -- 27). If we
continue to live as the old man we are giving place to the devil to have rule
over your life. I pray that you are
putting off and have put off that old man and have put on the new man.
To him who is afflicted,
kindness
should be shown
by his friend, even though he forsakes
the fear of
the Almighty.
Job 6: 14
Make your life value for God
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