Take off & Put on

Colossians 3:7-11

One of the greatest blessings is having a child; one of the most unpleasant is to have one that acts just like you!  If you have been there, it requires little explanation and if not then count yourself blessed.  You see all the things in them that irritate you, often they are personality traits that you are blind to in yourself or may have grown past, but you know they will bring curses not blessings to that child.   Your hope is that this child will not repeat your mistakes, and that you can guide them through the minefield of life.

That is what the Holy Spirit is telling us in these verses listed above.  One of the things that can render us incapable is to refuse as new creation in Christ, to take off the things of our unique kind of flesh, and put on the new you that relies on the Spirit of Christ.  If you are ignorant of your unique type of flesh, ask you mother, dad or your wife to give you some help, but do this only if you are serious about taking off the old and putting on the new you.  That exercise will not be fun, but it will be of profit to the one who then asks the Holy Spirit to guide them into knowledge of how to walk in this world. 

If you read verse eight and cannot identify with any of these things Paul is telling us to take off, you have really grown to maturity or your not being honest.  Verse eight, “But now you must put them all away: anger, wrath, malice, slander, and obscene talk from your mouth.”  Look at verse 9 and 10, “Do not lie to one another, seeing that you have put off the old self with its practices and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its creator.”  If you attend a small group you will find many Christians who lie to one another, are you shocked, well you should not be because I bet you have made yourself look better or told a lie in your small group.  Anytime we leave the impression that we have conquered one of these things or the many others we are told in Scripture to take off, and yet both God and we know it is not true, we have lied to one another.  As one who has taught the Scriptures, the danger is to come across as if you have victory in all the areas you are teaching, only Jesus Christ has done that.

Please do not read that I am saying we Christians cannot be over comers, for God would never have told us to take off and put on if it was something unattainable.  But it will require more than self-will it will take you being renewed in knowledge after the image of Christ.  When I look at myself, I find a man who has not died to many of the things I am told in verse eight to take off.  Verses 12-17 will give us, the chosen ones of God, a vision and the fruits that await us as we put on Christ. 

From the Back Porch,

Bob Rice