We Should Know Better

I would like to strongly encourage my fellow brothers and sisters in Christ with this message to perform an inventory check of all your attachments in life - people, places, things but especially behaviors - and hold each one accountable to God's will for your life then save or delete as appropriate.

I am assuming that my fellow Christians are in a healthy relationship with Christ - reading His Word daily, listening to His Holy Spirit, praying, obeying His leadings and serving Him in some capacity. If this is you, wonderful because even the best of us is tempted to return or at least sample the Old Life we shed after we accepted Christ's lifestyle by acknowledging His Lordship over our lives - We Should Know Better.

In Ephesians 4:17-32 Paul tackles the Christians behavior. These are items on a list believers could entitle - We Should Know Better - and they are found in the second half of this chapter as instructions for Christian living.

• Therefore each of you must put off falsehood and speak truthfully to your neighbor, for we are all members of one body. 
• “In your anger do not sin”: Do not let the sun go down while you are still angry, and do not give the devil a foothold. 
• Anyone who has been stealing must steal no longer, but must work, doing something useful with their own hands, that they may have something to share with those in need.
• Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen. 
• And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, with whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. 
• Get rid of all bitterness, rage and anger, brawling and slander, along with every form of malice. 
• Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you.

These instructions for our lifestyle are counter to the environment we live in. The entertainment industry alone with its tv shows, movies and series has produced more material with bitterness, rage and anger, brawling and slander, along with every form of malice in the last decade than I can remember.

In this Ephesians 4 chapter, before providing this handful of instructions to the Christian to aid in living the proper lifestyle, Paul states -

"You were taught, with regard to your former way of life, to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires; to be made new in the attitude of your minds; and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness."

Notice the wording in this daily challenge from Paul. The phrase "to put off" and "to put on". This imagery is liken unto clothing yourself with a shirt or jacket, but pertains to an "attitude of your mind" or mindset.

The old self, the old clothing, the old mindset is "corrupted" and should be "put off". Corruption speaks to a virus and that virus is called "deceitful desires". This is what we think and feel we know best for our lives. The programming of our hearts and minds have fallen drastically from God's. Jeremiah 17:9 attests to this saying, "The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it?" And these "deceitful desires" must be taken off of our life, out of our minds and not touched again.

This is why, even as new creatures in Christ, a believer must daily renew his/her mind in Christ Jesus by the power and aid of the Holy Spirit. Through additional confirming words of Paul, to the believers in Rome, he writes - 

"Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will." - Romans 12:2

In the words of Paul in this passage he says - 

"be made new in the attitude of your minds; ... put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness."

Righteousness means right relationship with God through Christ. The Christian lives out his/her life in and through this right-standing through following Christ's Ways found in Scripture and walking in/with the Holy Spirit, found within the believer.

Holiness is the set a-part-ness of the Christian from the world unto God for Christ's use and His glory. The more holy we are, the less of the worldly attachments, I mentioned earlier, the believer will see in their lives. Peter joins the call for holiness in 1 Peter 1:15-16 when he says,

"But just as he who called you is holy, so be holy in all you do; for it is written: “Be holy, because I am holy."

Living out His plan, His ways for His glory has incredible dividends for those who call Him - Lord and Savior. And when we are tempted to pick up those old clothes, to return back to that old self, to fall back to the old behaviors - notice it, catch it, pray for assistance, correct it and realize - We Should Know Better.