Old. New.

Colossians 3 1If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. 2Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth. 3For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God.4When Christ who is your life appears, then you also will appear with him in glory. 5Put to death therefore what is earthly in you: sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry. 6On account of these the wrath of God is coming. 7In these you too once walked, when you were living in them. 8But now you must put them all away: anger, wrath, malice, slander, and obscene talk from your mouth. 9Do not lie to one another, seeing that you have put off the old self with its practices 10and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its creator. 11Here there is not Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave, free; but Christ is all, and in all. 12Put on then, as God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience,13bearing with one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive. 14And above all these put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony. 15And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body. And be thankful. 16Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God. 17And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him. Verses 9 & 10 have been rolling around in my mind the last couple of days. The change we need to make from the old man to be the new man in Christ is a complete change in our lives. We can't just do a half hearted change and expect to be accepted into Christ's Kingdom. What is involved in putting off the old man and its practices? Why does Paul add the phrase and its practices to putting off the old man? Does this mean that who we are inside is separate from our actions? Who is inside our lives is who will influence our practices, what we actually do. We can cover up the inside by showing a 'proper' Christian exterior. This can only last so long as eventually the ugly heart will come through and colour our practices with sin and evil deeds. This weekend I was putting this soft office lady to work like she hasn't done in way too long. It felt so good to stretch the muscles (wait, what muscles?!) beyond anything they've experienced lately. I was sweating up a storm in the hot sticky June evening and afternoon. Did you know it takes LOTS of staples and nails to hold down a carpet? My sister and brother in law bought an old ugly house that they are tearing apart and fixing up. Now, they could've gone in, painted over the wallpaper and paint on the walls, laid another layer of carpet over the three layers already there and been able to move into a new looking house. It would not have taken near as long before having the renovations finished and they could sit back, relaxed, in their 'new' house. Five, maybe 10 years down the road, the walls would start showing cracks, bubbles, chips, etc. The old paint and wallpaper underneath would start showing through. Rather, they have taken out several walls, ripped the outside walls right down to the studs, taken the floors right down to the floorboards, and are completely redoing the house. The sweat, time, and money going into this project is much greater then doing a cover up job as they could have done. But in the end, they will have a 'new' house, just the outer shell that is still old. This newly done house will last many more years, and will be worth much more. The rewards for this project will be great and they will never regret it. Let Christ make you completely new, let Him rip out your old man and practices and make you into a completely new man; a new man that will last through eternity. I included the first 17 verses of Colossians 3 because I love the contrast between who we are before Christ and the life of the new man in Christ!