Christ is our life. What does that mean? It means He is the source of our life, that He is our example, and that we will be Christlike. Therefore we are to get rid of everything in our lives that belongs to our earthly nature, our unregenerate nature.
Paul then lists some of the things included in this: sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires and greed. This is not intended to be an exhaustive list. Every book of the Bible makes it clear that we have our part to play in making our salvation real in our lives, making it effective.
So why should we get rid of these things? Because they bring the wrath of God. The wrath of God is a passionate and reasoned hatred of sin. God hates sin because of what it does to us, and what it does to others. So these things are bad for us. They are also things that God hates, and the call to Christ is a call to unity with God.
"You used to walk in these ways". Jesus says He came to save the unrighteous. This is just as true today as it was then. The gospel is about calling people out of darkness into the light. This means they will have indulged in some pretty dark ways. Indeed we ourselves have done so at one time. Now is the time to get rid of them.
Then there is another list: angler, rage, malice, slander, bad language, lying.
We have to take off the old self and put on the new self. Now see that the work is not complete. For our new self is being renewed in knowledge in the image of God.
This applies to all people. For Christ is all and is in all. Paul probably uses this phrase as a counter to Gnostic type teaching.
No comments:
Post a Comment