Wish I had a new body. It’s been a wish of mine since the constant aches and pains started years ago. How great would it be if we could turn in our old bodies for a new one when needed or wanted. But I’ve realized this body is just a shell that will one day disappear and I will have a new glorious body in a world where sickness, pain, death (Rev. 21:4) and sin can no longer corrupt it (Rev. 21:27; 1Cor. 15:50). Woohoo! So, ignoring the body, what about the rest of me? Since 1983 when I gave my heart to the Lord, He has continued to change the inside me day by day. This is the ‘new man’ spoken about in Scripture and which we are virtually commanded to put on.
Paul speaking for the Lord said this in Eph. 4*:
Live no longer as the unsaved do
-in the corruption of their minds (v.17)
-far from God through not understanding His ways
-hearts blind, full of darkness (v.18)
-who becoming apathetic, become self-indulgent, impure and covetous (v.19)
But you have not learned so from Christ (v.20). If you truly know Him and His truth (v.21), then you will toss out the behaviours of your ‘old man’ (v.22) and:
-be renewed in the mind (v.23)
-put on your new man (v.24)
Now your attitudes and thoughts must all be constantly changing for the better. Yes, you must be a new and different person, holy and good. Clothe yourself with this new nature. (Eph. 4:23 ,24 TLB)
 |
| Christart.com |
I really appreciate TLB’s version of this scripture because it says that our attitudes and thoughts should be changing in the new man we have become since accepting Jesus. Sure, we still have a lot of areas that need work, but it certainly won’t happen all at once (no matter how much we wish it). Yet, if we continue to draw near to Him, He will change us from ‘glory to glory’ (2Cor.
One of the things I have tried to drill into my children since they were young is that man’s two greatest abilities (imo) are to learn and to grow (change). Unless the Lord tells me different, I will hold to that; after all, He’s the one who gave us those abilities. No matter how old we are, we can always learn more and allow the things we learn to change us. That is why it is vitally important to continue reading the Word and spending time in God’s presence, for with these do we learn.
Read again the list of the ‘old man’ above, and determine if you are behaving any of these ways. Then read the rest of the list from v.25 to 32 (especially in a good paraphrased) and decide if you have truly put on the new man. Thankfully, when we confess, He is faithful and just and forgives us our sin and cleanses us from all unrighteousness (1Jh. 1:9)!
*This is a mix of word study and paraphrase in order for better understanding.