4:23,24
It is not just a matter of putting off the old self, we are also to put on the new self. We are to be “renewed in the spirit of our minds”, this is reminiscent of Romans 12:2 where we are urged to be transformed by the renewal of our minds. Our new self is “created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness”. This, of course, reminds us of Gen 1:27 where we are told that we were created in the image of God. The work of sin is undone by the work of Christ on the cross. In the earlier chapters we saw how everything is God and Christ centred, we see here that it is still Christ centred, for the goal is to be like Christ, to be holy and righteous. We were saved in order to be like Christ, if we think we were saved for some other purpose then we are badly mistaken.
4:25
We now get some of the details of what it means to take off the old self and put on the new. We are to put away falsehood. Jesus tells us that Satan is the father of lies (John 8:44). Lying has nothing to do with the kingdom of God, so we should reject it at all times, even if we think that lying will achieve a good purpose. Instead we are to “speak the truth to our neighbour”. “For we are members one of another”. So if we lie to someone we are in effect lying to ourselves, which cannot be sensible.
No comments:
Post a Comment