Life is funny. Life is a struggle. Life is complex. Life is … well, life is an abundance of contradictions, delights and opportunities.
As Christians, we have former lives and new lives. We have a life in the Spirit. We battle the old life in the flesh. Some people slide through life without giving much heed to learning or changing, the Christian is not to be so.
“You, however, did not come to know Christ that way. Surely you heard of him and were taught in him in accordance with the truth that is in Jesus. You were taught, with regard to your former way of life, to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires; to be made new in the attitude of your minds; and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness.” [Ephesians 4:20-24 NIV]
We are taught to put off the old life, that old self which was corrupted and full of unholy desires. We are to be different now that we have come to know the God of grace who saved us from such ignorance and darkness.
First the attitude of our mind must be renewed, it must be made new. We are and do what we think. If we want to be different, if we want to act differently, we need to think differently. We need to think the things of God now. We need to study, to focus, to understand the ways of the Lord as He has outlined them in Holy Scripture. By filling our mind with godly things, the old ignorance is pushed away, and the darkness that was in us must bow to the light of Christ that fills us now.
Second, we are to put on a new self, a new life. By thinking the things of God, we allow God to create in us a true righteousness and holiness. Not a false righteousness and holiness that springs from the old self, but instead is born of God through God.
Living a new life.
