Ephesians 4:22-24 says,
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.
The first question: What is the former way of "life?" The answer lies in the quotation marks. A false life; essence of death, that is sin. Through sin God taught us. He took our sins and showed us what they truly are. They separate us from God and kill the part of Him that dwells within us. It is regarding this former way of life that we are taught to remove all things that lead to sin. God teaches us that remaining with the things of our old life as part of the world corrupts us. Remembering the previous post, we see that the things of the world are meaningless and doomed to perish. That which finds death in the end, will corrupt us and lead us to our end in death. The desires we have in this life are for what what brings pleasure to our earthly natures. But these things are deceitful. They are desires that teach us how to make treasure out of rust and decay. We are not to seek the world. We own nothing in it. We control nothing in it. Nothing in this world can truly benefit us. God aims to teach us this by transforming our minds.
The force that brings the most change is God's Love. It was through His Love that Lord Jesus Christ died on the cross for all of us. It is through His Love that our minds are changed. He teaches us through the repetition in the Bible. The repeated themes of His Power, Mercy, and Love are always repeated throughout the Bible. Even if many details seem to be missing and there are many mysteries in His Words, these themes are always present. They are always present so that the believer's mind might be changed and imbedded with the truths. God is Almighty. God is Merciful. God is Love. Our mind is changed and these truths become the foundation of all our logic. Our attitudes are turned from the world toward God and eternal life. Through the reading of the Word, Love and Mercy become the new mindset. If a mind is not basing its thoughts on the Biblical themes, then it is not renewed. It is still operating in the realm of worldliness, sin, and death. It is through study of the Bible that the mind is made new. With a new mindset, comes a new way of living.
As the old self is removed and the mind is made new, we become something new. We put on the new self that God created through the death and resurrection, and the joining of the Holy Spirit with our own. We become a new creation that does not die. This new creation was made to worship God by living according to His example that was set by Jesus Christ. We put on this new self with the desire to be like Christ our God. We pick a righteous and holy life over our death with the world. This life begins the moment we believe and is set to never end. It is the beginning of an eternal life. Our issue is that when we start, we are still on earth in mortal bodies with a sinful nature. Therefore, God gives us Grace through Jesus Christ.
Jesus Himself was tempted in his years on earth. He knows the power of the flesh over those who have fallen to it. He gives us grace when we sin. The grace is accepted through our hatred of our revealed sin, understood through the logic of our new mindset, and applied with the new self we have put on. It is seeing all of this that it is written in Ephesians 4:27, "and do not give the devil a foothold." I have found a foothold to be anything that leads to sin. It could be a small thing like watching a TV show, to something large and tempting. You can look at yourself to know what is your great temptation. A sin is anything that leads us from God. A foothold leads us to what leads us from God. I believe all footholds to be sin. This strict mindset is needed. A foothold is attractive because of its size. There is no harm in watching a single episode of a TV show right? It hurts no one. But what does it lead to? As the mind is transformed by God's Word, we see the immoral aspects of the show. We see what the 30-60 minutes of time could actually be used for. But still, it really didn't hurt anyone. As we take on more footholds however, the wasted time builds up, and the immoral ideas of the world penetrate our minds again. The mind is slowly brought back to what it was before, and the old self begins to show itself in us again. We soon remember that the word "foothold" means a stable point a person can grab onto in order to reach the goal. The "person" is the devil, and his "goal" is our most feared sin. The sin that takes us from God, and that truly brings us to our most ruined state. We all have one. Mine like many others is sexual immorality. The sin that attacks inside our hearts. Once this feared sin is committed, it feels like the long journey we have taken to be with God in this life has just been turned to nothing. It takes much prayer and renewing of mind to move us past our feelings of guilt and death. For myself, a small foothold is not worth this grief.
I choose to leave the things I find to be footholds behind. It can be hard. Footholds tend to be the simple pleasures that allow us to relax despite to issues and pains we feel when we face the world. Relaxing with a couple recorded shows on my dvr after work was hard to give up. I still have trouble with it. But when I read God's Word and see how pointless and dangerous it is, I see that it is a foothold and it is dangerous. We are Christians, we should not turn to world to make us feel better. And we should not be ignoring the issues of the world, no matter how upset and troubled they make us. It is better to put off the old self and be made new in mind and heart and body and soul. Only when these are renewed can we use them to serve our God properly. God knows your needs as well. He has provided me with better ways to relax after work. Praying for those who trouble me, reading and indulging in His Word, singing the songs He has blessed me with. He knows our needs and satisfies us in ways that the footholds cannot. The footholds are not worth what they cost.
Thank You For Reading
Long Live Jesus Christ
Amen
1 comment:
Nice, you got some good points.
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