Word@Work Eph47 - Ephesians 4:22-24
Published: Mon, 12/01/08
Word@Work from BeaconLight
NO SMALL CHANGE
Ephesians 4:22-24 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. (NIV)
Some mentors fix themselves in our memory. Most people remember the name of their reception class teacher. After that the kind or the cruel are impressed somewhere on our brain, but especially those people who helped our learning leap forward. We recall them, partly by their ability to convey information, but more by their character, their enthusiasm for their subject and their personal interest that we should do extremely well in the subject - because they have personally put everything into it. Paul was that kind on teacher. His life was devoted to pleasing Jesus well, and so it mattered to him that his students excelled too.
Here Paul reminded them of the essential change-process: you cannot live a new life without first renouncing the old. A problem for many Christians is that they try to integrate the two. It never works! The old nature is riddled with corruption and is so easily recontaminated. Given half a chance it will be back to its old ways - which is why it needs to be discarded as definitely as rancid food. This choice is made in the mind, but it has to have the full agreement of the heart: you will follow the decision through only because it is the thing you really want to do.
Compared with the indelibly stained old nature, God's righteous and holy nature is a blast of fresh air. It may even be somewhat overwhelming, at first, to be given His Word and to realise that He intends to fill us with His Holy Spirit so that we can put on a new nature, just like His. Again, this has to be an active choice - fuelled by a desire to be pleasing to God in every way, and determined to do whatever is necessary to ensure that we are. The workplace is a better test-bed for this new nature than most realise. Christians who are wise will not seek worldly approval at work while attracting spiritual admiration at church. We only have one life - the Christian life. So let the office, factory, farm, school, shop or hospital see that you have renounced corruption (in its many forms) and have embraced Jesus Christ.
Prayer: Father God. My old nature wants to drag me back to living in the darkness, but I want to live in the light with You. Please help me to want this change with all my heart, and to make the right negative and positive decisions with all my mind - so that the whole of my life, including my work-life today, may be an undiluted pleasure to You. In Jesus' Name. Amen.
You can read the verses around this Bible passage from the Internet Bible: - in English, and Spanish
Some mentors fix themselves in our memory. Most people remember the name of their reception class teacher. After that the kind or the cruel are impressed somewhere on our brain, but especially those people who helped our learning leap forward. We recall them, partly by their ability to convey information, but more by their character, their enthusiasm for their subject and their personal interest that we should do extremely well in the subject - because they have personally put everything into it. Paul was that kind on teacher. His life was devoted to pleasing Jesus well, and so it mattered to him that his students excelled too.
Here Paul reminded them of the essential change-process: you cannot live a new life without first renouncing the old. A problem for many Christians is that they try to integrate the two. It never works! The old nature is riddled with corruption and is so easily recontaminated. Given half a chance it will be back to its old ways - which is why it needs to be discarded as definitely as rancid food. This choice is made in the mind, but it has to have the full agreement of the heart: you will follow the decision through only because it is the thing you really want to do.
Compared with the indelibly stained old nature, God's righteous and holy nature is a blast of fresh air. It may even be somewhat overwhelming, at first, to be given His Word and to realise that He intends to fill us with His Holy Spirit so that we can put on a new nature, just like His. Again, this has to be an active choice - fuelled by a desire to be pleasing to God in every way, and determined to do whatever is necessary to ensure that we are. The workplace is a better test-bed for this new nature than most realise. Christians who are wise will not seek worldly approval at work while attracting spiritual admiration at church. We only have one life - the Christian life. So let the office, factory, farm, school, shop or hospital see that you have renounced corruption (in its many forms) and have embraced Jesus Christ.
Prayer: Father God. My old nature wants to drag me back to living in the darkness, but I want to live in the light with You. Please help me to want this change with all my heart, and to make the right negative and positive decisions with all my mind - so that the whole of my life, including my work-life today, may be an undiluted pleasure to You. In Jesus' Name. Amen.
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