Yesterday ended the Lenten season, but that doesn’t mean that we stop living for Christ simply because one of the annual “holidays” in which we celebrate Him is over. Actually, as Christians, we need to be celebrating Who Jesus is and what He has done, is doing, and will do for us ALL OF THE TIME!
In today’s passage the Apostle Paul tells us that we are to put to death our earthly selves because we no longer live for ourselves since claiming our salvation in Christ; we now live as one with Christ. Paul goes on to caution us against living for our earthly desires because God’s anger will come upon us. When we live for our earthly desires, no matter what it is that seems to satisfy us, we must remember that everything and everyone is temporal, the only One Who is eternal is Jesus. So, we need to focus on making Him the only idol that we worship and stop placing ourselves in an idol position by worshipping our desires because that is living for ourselves and not living for Jesus.
You and I must remember that we are new creations in Christ, and so as we celebrate Him daily (and not just during the Christian holidays) new desires that are holy and in alignment with His Word start to grow and navigate our lives. We begin to despise the sin that we once loved, and those outside of our Christian Family may start to think that we are weird, and that God has too many rules. The truth is that you and I simply choose to love Jesus more than we once loved our sin, and we shouldn’t care how weird or unaccepting that is to anyone.
Verse 11 is my favorite…we are all free in Christ and He is in ALL of us. There is nothing that makes any one of us stand ahead of the other in our oneness with Jesus because there is no distinction! Friends, that means we must treat each other the same, just as we would treat Jesus.
Colossians 3:5-11 (GNT)
The Old Life and the New
5 You must put to death, then, the earthly desires at work in you, such as sexual immorality, indecency, lust, evil passions, and greed (for greed is a form of idolatry). 6 Because of such things God’s anger will come upon those who do not obey him. 7 At one time you yourselves used to live according to such desires, when your life was dominated by them.
8 But now you must get rid of all these things: anger, passion, and hateful feelings. No insults or obscene talk must ever come from your lips. 9 Do not lie to one another, for you have put off the old self with its habits 10 and have put on the new self. This is the new being which God, its Creator, is constantly renewing in his own image, in order to bring you to a full knowledge of himself. 11 As a result, there is no longer any distinction between Gentiles and Jews, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarians, savages, slaves, and free, but Christ is all, Christ is in all.
Prayer: Jesus, thank You for so many beautiful reminders this past Lenten season. Help me to focus more and more on growing in our daily relationship together. I want my desires to be what You want for me because I know that Your plan and purpose for my life is perfect. I ask all of this in Your Name, Jesus. Amen.