Ephesians 4:22-24 “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; to be made new in the attitude of your minds; and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness.”
Pastor Herk continues by stating that when Jesus tells His followers to change their clothes to be consistent with the new life that we have in Him, its not enough just to straighten up the clothes that we have on. We have to strip off the old clothes entirely and put on completely new clothes; a whole new spiritual wardrobe. When the Apostle Paul writes: put on the new self, the Greek word for “new” is “kainos”, meaning recently made, fresh, recent, unused, unworn as respects to form, but as respects substance it is of a new kind, unprecedented, novel, uncommon, unheard of . Something far superior to anything that we had that existed before in our old way of life that we have in Jesus.
In John 8:31-32 Jesus said to the people who believed in him, “You are truly my disciples if you remain faithful to my teachings. And you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”
Practically, we are to ‘be made new in the attitude of your minds’. In order to do that we first have to fill our minds with the right things. Useful, purposeful, advantageous, constructive, creative, encouraging, inspiring, uplifting, supporting, nurturing, kingdom-worthy thoughts. The Apostle Paul tells us in Philippians 4:8, “brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things”. The material that we give to God to work with in our hearts is our thoughts. We need to focus our thoughts on (a) truth. We can equate the truth with the person of Jesus Christ, so (b) is to focus on Jesus. John 1:14 says, “The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.” There is some much fake news, bad news and lies today being broadcast for our deception, distraction and manipulation; we need to seek truth and think about those things.
2 Corinthians 4:14-16 “We know that the one who raised the Lord Jesus from the dead will also raise us with Jesus and present us with you to himself. All this is for your benefit, so that the grace that is reaching more and more people may cause thanksgiving to overflow to the glory of God. Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, is working for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory, while we do not look at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen. For the things which are seen are temporary, but the things which are not seen are eternal.”
(c) We need to focus on the eternal. 1 John 5:11-13 cuts to the chase, “And this is the testimony: God has given us eternal life ,and this life is in his Son. Whoever has the Son has life; whoever does not have the Son of God does not have life. I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God so that you may know that you have eternal life.” The eternal perspective of the true Believer is to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord in Heaven. The born-again, sanctified child of God is a citizen of the eternal Kingdom of Heaven; sojourners on this side of eternity walking in the steps of the Lord, and taking a day’s journey with Jesus daily. Fix your eyes not on what is seen, but unseen (Providence, Fruit of the Spirit, Living Water, Harmony, Tranquility, Symmetry, Order in Nature, et cetera). Our earthly existence is temporal, but the things of Heaven is eternal. Lay up for yourself treasure in Heaven.
(d) We need to focus on thing above. In Colossians 3:1-3 “Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things. For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God.” The Greek word for “things above” here is “anō”, meaning heavenly things; the calling made in heaven; those things that operate within the sphere of influence of almighty God., distinguished from the things of this materialistic and naturalistic world. The one place that we can focus on all of these aspects at the same time is in the Word of God. We need to be reading and prayerfully mediating upon Holy Scripture of the Bible every day possible and stay connected to the Vine of truth so we have continuously bear good fruit.
We have to be willing to be willing and allow our heavenly Father to work in us and renew us. Jesus said in Revelation 3:20, “Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with that person, and they with me.” Commune with the Lord, your God and be in intimate relationship daily. The term “to be made new” used by the Apostle Paul is the passive tense Greek word “Ananeoō”, meaning to be spiritually transformed by the Holy Spirit, to take on a new mind given by the almighty hand of God. The One doing the work of renewal is the Lord, not us, so accept this divine gift, facilitate this heavenly work and dress accordingly.
In Christ, Brian
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