BY: Pastor Bob Miller
CHAPTER READ: Ephesians 4
SCRIPTURE SELECTED: Ephesians 4:22-24
22 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; 23 to be made new in the attitude of your minds; 24 and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness.
OBSERVATION:
Paul begins this chapter by saying we are prisoners for the Lord and that we should live worthy of our calling. He says that we are no longer to live as we did prior to knowing Christ but that with regard to our former way of living we are to put off our old self which is driven by minds that are being deceived through selfish desires and to put on the new self, which begins with a whole new way of thinking, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness.
APPLICATION:
We are called to “put off” our old self and to “put one” our new self which comes from Christ Jesus. We are not to live according to our old pattern of life, but to live according to the pattern that Jesus provided for us. When we recognize that we have attitudes or actions which were part of our life prior to Christ, then we need to “take it off” and stop wearing it around town. Instead we put on our new self and begin drawing from the wardrobe that Christ has provided us, which consists of love, joy, peace, kindness, patience, goodness and self-control.
PRAYER:
Lord as I get dressed this morning, the most important thing for me to put on is not “my shirt, pants and slippers”…but to put on You! When others see me and hear me speak today, I want them to recognize that the one whose design upon what I am wearing is Jesus and the logo is a “cross”. Amen