This morning I am reading from Paul's letter to the Colossians 3:5-10 NIV:
[5] "Put to death, therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly nature: sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires and greed, which is idolatry. [6] Because of these, the wrath of God is coming. [7] You used to walk in these ways, in the life you once lived. [8] But now you must also rid yourselves of all such things as these: anger, rage, malice, slander, and filthy language from your lips. [9] Do not lie to each other, since you have taken off your old self with its practices [10] and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge in the image of its Creator."
I am meditating on these verses this morning and thinking about the differences between the first list (vers 5) and the second list (verse 8). The first list appears to have to do with our earthly nature, some would also call this our flesh. They have to do with unhealthy, unnatural and uncontrolled appetites. These things, if they are allowed to persist, become idols to us. We worship them with our lifestyles, our thoughts and our actions, giving ourselves to them in an intimate embrace. Our hearts are affected by our flesh, and our desires line up with the flesh, rather than God's.
The second list, seems to me, has to do with unbelief and selfishness. In my limited experience, the cause of many people's internal anger is a form of unbelief. They have not connected with God's unconditional love for themselves, have not understood His favor, grace, mercy and compassion. Deep down, they believe they have been cheated, wronged, neglected, or wounded by God, or that He has allowed these things in their lives. They are hurt and feel terrible about themselves, and the only thing that makes sense to them is to pass that hurt onto others. Its as if they are lonely in the bottom of their well of self-pity and pain and want to bring others down with them.
I think this has to do with unbelief, or wrong belief, because what we believe about God is key to our own view of ourselves and the world around us. If we believe that God is an angry God, just waiting to judge us for our wrong behavior, than we think He has made us bad, and is just waiting to slap us down. We see life as a negative experience, like walking through a mine-field. If we think God doesn't like us, then we have a very hard time liking ourselves and often times invest in behavior to prove to ourselves we are unlikable. If we have no relationship with God, then we see religion as a bunch of constricting rules meant to punish us and take away anything good or fun. All of these mindsets are types of wrong belief or unbelief. They are counter to the revelation of the Father found in scripture, and reflected in Jesus' life. They are often the result of believing lies and accusations against God, as pushed by many these days.
Going back to the verses, Paul is saying that it is not enough to deal with the outward expressions, and internal affliction of our hearts, but we must also address the issues of our thoughts and beliefs about God. Our "old self" needs to be dealt with and replaced by the "new self" available through relationship with Jesus. Paul writes about this in his second letter to the church in Corinth - 2 Corinthians 5:17 NIV: "Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!'
It is like we have been given a new car, but we keep driving the old. Let us choose to leave the old self in the garage and embrace our new self, our new creation and walk in that reality every day.
Amen - help me Lord.
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