Text Of Interest:
“But ye are come unto mount
Sion, and unto the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to an
innumerable company of angels, to the general assembly and church of the
firstborn, which are written in heaven, and to God the Judge of all, and to the
spirits of just men made perfect, And to Jesus the mediator of the new
covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling, that speaketh better things than that
of Abel.”
Heb 12:22 – 24 (KJV)
In the last few episodes we have dealt
with the things that we should add to knowledge and as a result be fruitful in
the knowledge of Christ. However, it is important for us to look into the
things we are asked to put off as believers. Those things that are considered as
loads that weighs the believers down. The instruction says put off, again it
suggests that it is the responsibility of the believer not God’s. This is
coming up because many have been misled that the gospel of grace is an
opportunity for one to live his life the way and manner he or she so desires,
this is a fallacy and should not be accepted. This we shall be discussing in
another topic but for now let’s see what Apostle Paul said to the Colossians in
his epistle to them and I quote “But now
ye also put off all these; anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, filthy
communication out of your mouth. Lie not one to another, seeing that ye have
put off the old man with his deeds;” (Colossians 3:8-9). And to the
Ephesians Apostle Paul wrote thus; and I quote “But ye have not so learned Christ; If so be that ye have heard him,
and have been taught by him, as the truth is in Jesus That ye put off
concerning the former conversation the old man, which is corrupt according to
the deceitful lusts; And be renewed in the spirit of your mind;” (Ephesians
4:20-22).
Let me start with the last quotation, and before I go into most of the things he said we should put off in the former
quotation. Here he made mention of things like, not so learned Christ, been
taught by Him, the truth is in Jesus, putting off the former conversation the
old man, corrupt according to the deceitful lusts and then be renewed in the
spirit of your mind. These are cogent points or statement one shouldn’t just
overlooked but consider while reading this text. We have not so learned Christ
and been taught by Him, implies that, Jesus Christ should be the standard for
every believer. Whatever the believer sees in Christ is what he should go for
and never veers from it. The truth is in Jesus, infers that Jesus Christ is the
reality and there is not 'fakeness' in Him, what He says He is, is what He
is and no two ways about it. Therefore, a believer in Christ should as a matter
of fact replicate what he sees in Him and as a result should not be anything
less than true. And because the truth is in Christ and the believer has learn
of Him there is no way a life of corruption should be found in the believer
hence the important step of putting off the former conversation which is the
life he has lived before coming into Christ. This former life or nature is corrupted
according to the deceitful lusts in the world which is engineered in the mind
of the former man or old man, and for the new man who is now in Christ to be
well established the tendency is there for renewal of his mind. This is where
the life in Christ begins, yes in the mind, once the mind is renewed, there is
an assurance that whatever that is learned of Christ must be established and
remains.
When the mind of the believer has been
renewed, putting off these things mentioned in the above quotation will not be
a glitch for him, in the sense that the ability has be built in him. So we
begin to look at the things to put off and why we should put them off. Firstly,
let me begin to answer why, Like I said in the earlier episodes, a believer is
someone who has heard the gospel of Christ and believed in it. The action to
believe is a function of faith in the word preached and it brings him into the
fold of Christ and he is sealed with the Holy Ghost as God’s property. Since he
has believed the word preached to him, he’s now born of the Word or the Spirit
and as a result should live in and by the Word or the Spirit. Which implies
that his nature becomes what the Word or the Spirit offers him and whatever the
Word or the Spirit has to offer will not be something he has to putt of but be
established in. That is to say whatever he has to put off will not be anything
of the Word or the Spirit, and anything not emanating from the Word or the
Spirit is known as carnal or flesh, see (Galatians 5:19).
So these things we are asked to put
off are the carnal things and because they are not of the Word or the Spirit we
should as a matter fact put them off and these includes Anger and wrath. Now
why must we put off anger and wrath, notice that this two attributes stem from
the same source and one and the same in nature. Apostle James says in his
epistle that, I quote “For the wrath of man worketh not the righteousness of
God.”(James 1:20). Therefore, a believer supposed to put off anger and wrath
because they don’t showcase the righteousness of God in the believer. These two
doesn’t reflect the nature of Christ who the believer has learned and therefore
they should be done away with.
To be continued…..
Till I come your way again, keep on
basking in the Arena of Indubitable Truth!
Chukwuemeka C. Asiegbu
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