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Colossians 3.1-11
If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. 2 Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth. 3 For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. 4 When Christ who is your life appears, then you also will appear with him in glory.
5 Put to death therefore what is earthly in you: sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry.6 On account of these the wrath of God is coming. 7 In these you too once walked, when you were living in them. 8 But now you must put them all away: anger, wrath, malice, slander, and obscene talk from your mouth. 9 Do not lie to one another, seeing that you have put off the old self with its practices 10 and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its creator. 11 Here there is not Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave, free; but Christ is all, and in all.
ESV
Wow. Verses 1-4 are incredible verses that literally ring in your ears if you let them. Paul challenges us to focus on Jesus and not the priorities and practices of this world. The challenge is to center our hearts and minds on Jesus and let all the other thoughts and choices flow through Him. What a radical way of thinking. It’s so peaceful and freeing because our decisions are based on our relationship with Christ and not some other criteria of our own invention or that of our ever-changing culture.
Better still, we know that all the stuff we’re doing is going to have purpose and eternal consequences because God often gives back to us the stuff we are doing but now, those things either become transformed into something amazing as they fall in line with God’s plans and purposes or they fall by the wayside and are no longer a burden for us to carry; win-win.
As we move through those thoughts, Paul points out that there are some things that we must work at ridding from our lives. Notice that it’s about getting rid of them and not just putting them in the back seat. It’s a process of transformation. It seems so obvious that these things need to go, yet we seem to struggle to deal with them. We all have things that we need to put off and let go of; I know I do.
And the imagery that Paul uses to describe this is so awesome—putting off the old self and putting on the new. But then what happens? We are renewed in the image of our Creator (Genesis 1.26-27).
However, don’t miss how Paul frames this—it’s all in knowledge after the image of its creator (verse 10). The expectation on the part of Paul is for us to think through and to know the truth of the Gospel, to know our Heavenly Father, His Son Jesus, and the Spirit. That’s what we are to know and the relationship that you and I are created to enjoy. Thinking back to the previous passage and devotional, this is exactly what happens during our times of solitude.
Want to be renewed? Want a change in your life? Then, work on centering your life on Jesus and be with Him! We can always do some spring cleaning in our lives with our attitudes and our behaviors, but here’s the problem. It’s not good enough to just put something off because the reality is that we will fill that empty space with something. So unless we put on Christ, that emptiness will be filled with something else that will eventually be a problem for us. We need to not only get rid of negative stuff, but then to put on Christ, and in doing so, you will be compelled to remove the old rags and put on some amazing new clothes.
So I’m forced to ask a hard question this morning, “What do you need to put off and how can you center your life even more so on Jesus today?”
God bless you as you wrestle with this today!
Have a great and grace filled week and my personal challenge to you is to really take in verses 1-4. Memorize them if you can or at least copy them down and then put them up somewhere where you will read them every day this week!
Know that you are constantly in my prayers.
Scott
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