#DailyDevotion Killing The Earthly Things & Putting On Christ
Col. 3: 5 Kill, then, what is earthly in you: sexual sin, uncleanness, passion, evil lust, and greed, which is idol worship; 6 these are bringing down God’s anger.7 Once you also practiced them when you lived in them. 8 But now also get rid of all such things as anger, rage, malice, slander, and dirty talk. 9Don’t lie to one another, seeing that you have put away your old self and its ways 10 and have put on the new self, which is continually renewed in knowledge to be like Him Who created him. 11 Here there is no Greek or Jew, circumcised or uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave or free, but Christ is everything and in everything.
In contrast to yesterday’s reading where we told to keep our minds on things above, today we are told to “put to death” certain thoughts, actions and inclinations. Since we have died with Christ in baptism and have been raised to newness of life, particularly Christ’s life and we are no longer slaves and captive to sin, death and the power of the devil, our old way of life is not going to be the way we live in anymore.
Now Paul’s list is not exhaustive. Paul says to kill these things which are earthly in us, “sexual sin, uncleanness, passion, evil lust, and greed, which is idol worship;…” So that would be all sex outside of marriage, aberrant sexual practices, sexual passion and evil lust. These things abuse the body which is the temple of God. They are sins against our own bodies. Now this is all around us. It is also in our flesh. It is overcome by remembering whose we are and what he has promised us. We try to fill this hole in our heart with these things but only the love of Jesus can do that. So you kill them by doing the first, keeping your mind on things above, the promises of God.
Next to sexual sins is greed which is idol worship. Actually the whole list is idol worship. We are turning to something or someone to provide us with every good which only God can fulfill. Greed is looking to material wealth to solve all your problems. When we become jealous for our goods and covetous for others’ goods we are being greedy. We trust our wealth instead of trusting God who gave us his only begotten son to give us life and salvation. This is idolatry. Turn to God in Christ Jesus to solve your problems and trust he is doing something about them and you will overcome your greed.
But that’s not all! “But now also get rid of all such things as anger, rage, malice, slander, and dirty talk. 9Don’t lie to one another, seeing that you have put away your old self and its ways.” Well fisherman and golfers are going to have a time of putting some of this away. Indeed we all will. Sins of the lips you could call these. We do these things because we are not content with what God has given us. When we are not secure in who we are in Christ Jesus, we will find our security in these things. When who we are and what we have done is threatened, we act out in these ways. When we see these things in ourselves we are called to put on the new self which is being renewed in the image of the knowledge of Christ. Our escape from acting out and desiring to commit these sins is overcome with believing what God has said he has done for us in Christ Jesus. Our sins are forgiven and can longer accuse us before God in heaven. We have been given eternal life in Christ Jesus. We have inherited the kingdom of God, his righteousness, his life and his glory.
In Christ our divisions cease. We don’t judge ourselves or other people by how they look. What counts is the new man created in Christ Jesus through faith in him. To this Jesus has called all people everywhere to become on in him. Therefore we don’t look at people for who they are below but to what God has called them to be in heaven above.
Heavenly Father, give us your Holy Spirit that we may always be thinking on the things above, which we are promised in Christ Jesus, so we may worship you alone and trust you alone for all good things, so we may put away all earthly passions, lusts, greed and insecurities that we have in our flesh and live new lives in Christ Jesus. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.