Honey From The Rock

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Honey From The Rock
Psalm 81:16

"Sweet Stuff From God's Word"

A daily Bible study with Victor Knowles
Copyright 2007

JUST "PUTTING ON"

This entry was posted on 05-23-2008 and is filed under uncategorized.

"...and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness" (Eph. 4:24 NIV).

Every hear anyone say, "Oh, he (or she) is just putting on"? Maybe you have even uttered those words dripping in disdain as you observed someone's behavior. But we should all be "guilty" of "putting on" - not putting on airs but putting on the new self. The Amplified N.T. says, "And put on the new nature (the regenerate self) created in God's image..."

In a chart study titled "A Christian Must Do Both," Donald G. Hunt made the observation that the Christian life is both "putting off" and "putting on." He cited eight passages, including Eph. 4:22-24. "Put off your old self...put on the new self." Romans 13:12 says, "Put aside the deeds of darkness and put on the armor of light." Colossians 3:5-10 says, "Put to death, therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly nature...rid yourself of all such things...put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge and in the image of its Creator."

I like the way J. B. Phillips puts it in his translation. "No, what you learned was to fling off the dirty clothes of the old way of living, which were rotted through and through with lust's illusions, and, with yourselves mentally and spiritually remade, to put on the clean fresh clothes of the new life which was made by God's design for righteousness and the holiness which is no illusion." The key here is the phrase: "with yourselves mentally and spiritually remade."

Some never do "put off" old sins or habits. They are draped in darkness. Some never "put on" Christ or the new self. They are naked neophytes. The good Christian will do both. Each day let us "put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness." Get dressed spiritually for each new day through Scripture, meditation, prayer, and determined acts of a sanctified will.

Hymn: "When He shall come with trumpet sound, O may I then in Him be found, Dressed in His righteousness alone, Faultless to stand before the throne" (Edward Mote).