Picture, if you may, a young person who is homeless and desperately poor, and whose clothes are filthy and smelly, no better than rags. By some stroke of luck this person is adopted into a wealthy family. They are bathed with soap and hot water, and given beautiful, elegant clothes. The nasty clothes are taken and thrown out. What would you think if this young person, though grateful to be in this new family, takes his old, smelly clothes back and wears them? No, we say! Take off those old, nasty clothes and put on the new! The Apostle Paul gives a similar picture in our passage in his letter to the Ephesians today.
When we ask Jesus into our heart, and accept Him as our Savior, we become a new person. Paul calls this the “new man”, and the former unsaved person we were is called the “old man” (vs 22-24). Our old, unsaved behavior and conduct is to be cast off of us just like the filthy clothes of a former homeless person’s is thrown off. Instead, just like new clothes, we put on the holiness and righteousness we receive from Jesus when we are saved.
As Paul opens our passage, he tells his readers to stop acting like they did before they were saved (vs 17-19). Our “walk” is our daily conduct, and the Scripture here tells us not to act like the ungodly, the unsaved (vs 17). Unbelievers are spiritually separated from God. They are in spiritual darkness and moral blindness, and their conduct shows this (vs 18). Unbelievers are morally insensitive. They sin and turn away from God. They are behaviorally depraved.
The world is “past feeling” (vs 19), having lost all sensitivity and all feelings of shame. Today there are no feelings of shame or embarrassment when certain topics are discussed, like there used to be. Now everything coarse and vulgar is openly spoken of, and if Christians don’t like it, we are mocked. People have grown comfortable with sin, which is the first step on a downward slope of disaster. If we repeatedly ignore our conscience it will become seared, and we will no longer even feel its pricks. As Christians, the Holy Spirit’s convictions should be our God-given defense against sin.
God’s priorities and the world’s priorities are completely incompatible. Before salvation everyone wants to satisfy their own desires. The world says we can each decide what is right for us. God’s way is the opposite. He says to deny oneself and be a servant to others.
After we are saved, we have a decision to make. We have to decide to put off the old man and put on the new man. We have to decide to stop living like the unsaved and followers of false religions. Their behavior is sensual, self-indulgent, impure, and greedy. Wrong thinking leads to wrong actions.
When saved, the old man no longer exists. The new man is created in the likeness of God. Though the old man no longer exists, we sometimes choose to act and live as though it did. Paul tells us to decide to “put off” the old man. That describes repentance from sin and submission to God. Paul also tells us to “put on” the new man. To do that is to live according to the truth of the Gospel. We need to renew our mind with His Word (Romans 12:2). We must grow in obedience, love, and compassion.
It’s time for us believers to live like the family we have been adopted into. We are no longer the dirty street urchins we were before. It’s time to take off the old filthy, contaminated clothes and destroy them. It’s time to put on the clothes the Lord Jesus has given us.
No comments:
Post a Comment