August 2: Put on the new self

Therefore if you have been raised up with Christ, keep seeking the things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your mind on the things above, not on the things that are on earth. For you have died and your life is hidden with Christ in God…… Therefore consider the members of your earthly body as dead to immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and greed, which amounts to idolatry. For it is because of these things that the wrath of God will come upon the sons of disobedience, and in them you also once walked, when you were living in them. But now you also, put them all aside: anger, wrath, malice, slander, and abusive speech from your mouth. Do not lie to one another, since you laid aside the old self with its evil practices, and have put on the new self.    (Colossians 3:1-10 — New American Standard Version)

The apostle Paul makes the intelligent argument that if we say we’ve been raised up with Christ, we ought to live it out in practical ways. In the early church, like today, there were people who talked about their faith in God and how they had been raised up to live a new life, but weren’t doing it — it wasn’t apparent to the people around them. Then he went on to list various things that he noticed were creeping into the lives of people who professed a real faith in Jesus: sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires, greed, anger, wrath, malice, slander, filthy language, and lies. Paul lived 2000 years ago, but it’s as if he has his finger on the pulse of today’s world because everything on that list is a serious problem for people today.

When Paul says “set” your minds on things above, the Greek communicates a continual act not a one time thing, a continual choice that we have to make every day. We can’t tire of setting our minds on things above, assume that we’re so mature that it’s unnecessary, or think that we can ignore it and not feel the effect. We have to keep reminding ourselves of the importance of the things above — salvation, life after death, heaven, God, the Holy Spirit, the name of Jesus, our authority — and downplay the importance of the things on earth. Like Paul says, we should consider ourselves dead to the world.

If we have genuine faith in God the world no longer dictates the way we think and live because our lives are “hidden with Christ in God”. It doesn’t say that God will hide our lives, but that they are hidden — it’s something that has already been accomplished. In other words, when we have faith and are making an effort to follow and obey the Lord Jesus, we are protected, hidden with Jesus, we have God Almighty’s protection. So we should not look at that list of wrongs, and even things that aren’t on that list, with the attitude that we’re only human, and getting rid of certain things is too hard. No. If we are hidden in Christ we have the power to do it.

Paul is challenging us to die to the old self whose master is Satan, and be raised up as a new self with a new master, the Spirit of God inside of us. — Accept his challenge.