Your New Self
Colossians 3:8-11 (NIVUK)
But now you must also 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.
Paul encourages Christian believers to focus their attention on godly, spiritual things. Those who are spiritually free, thanks to their faith in Christ, should not live in the sins which used to be their habit. When we were lost to the world, 'anger, rage, malice, slander and filthy language' says Paul, dominated our old selves. But now, we are called to ditch these immoralities and dress ourselves in Christ’s virtues, free from sin that once so easily ensnared and entangled us.
Who said life in the Spirit would be a simple path to follow when our old self sometimes threatens to rear its ugly head again - and again!
But now, we are being renewed in the knowledge and the image of God, where his godly and holy virtues are to be mirrored in us for his glory. We have a duty to be eager participants in the sanctification process, where God cleanses and purifies us of all that displeases him. We should be obedient to Christ’s call of holiness, the highest honour for Christians to partake in, this side of heaven.
I know that I desire to be like Christ and reflect his very nature by ridding myself of all immoralities. Do you feel the constant tug between the flesh and the Spirit? Is it a fight for you to always choose to rid yourself of your former self? It is a daily decision to choose to dress yourself in your new self, which is pleasing to our heavenly Father. Whose applause are we living for? The only applause that I should ever seek on earth is God’s, the loving approval of the almighty Creator of heaven and earth.
Prayer - Lord, I pray that you will always help me to put on my new self, even when my fleshly desires threaten to overwhelm me. Thank you that I am a brand-new creation in Christ.