Daily Devotional

April 19th 2024

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FRIDAY

You learned Christ! My assumption is that you have paid careful attention to Him, been well instructed in the truth precisely as we have it in Jesus. Since, then, we do not have the excuse of ignorance, everything—and I do mean everything—connected with that old way of life has to go. It’s rotten through and through. Get rid of it! And then take on an entirely new way of life—a God-fashioned life, a life renewed from the inside and working itself into your conduct as God accurately reproduces His character in you. —Ephesians 4:22-24 (MSG)

Putting off the old and putting on the new is the principle by which the possibilities that are in Christ become evident in our experience.
Paul acknowledges that the old life still has a pull on the Christian, but his admonition is for us to reject these false, underlying assumptions that come from the old self—old deeds, outlooks and attitudes. “Get rid of it!”
This is an important word for our times. The desire for things is a part of our everyday existence in a capitalistic society. But Paul says the unhealthy desire for things lead us astray. These deceitful urges are constantly coming to us as we react to various situations in which we find ourselves. The first step in experiencing what God intends for us is to get rid of the old.
The other is to recognize the wonderful possibilities of the new life. In that phrase, “a life renewed from the inside and working itself into your conduct,” we have the fundamental difference between the Christian and the non-Christian. It is true that non-Christians sometimes realize that things are wrong in their lives, and they change them. But the change is to another expression of the same basic egocentricity. They change the outer form, but the problem remains basically the same.
But in Christ, we have the opportunity of doing something entirely different—live by an entirely different principle—because we have been renewed in the attitude of our minds. And that happens in the regenerated life as the Spirit of God comes into the heart that believes in Jesus Christ. When we believe in Jesus Christ and receive Him as our Lord and Savior, we are renewed in the attitudes of our minds. The new self is in the likeness of God: it is the life of God; it is the image of Jesus Christ; it is His life lived in us. So we must put on that kind of life, because it is available to us.

Prayer: Lord, we confess that deceitful desires for things fool us. We think they will make us happy. As we go today, help us to understand and put into practice this great principle of putting off the old self and putting on the new. In the name of our Lord, we pray. AMEN!

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