February 6 – New Clothes (Ephesians 4:17-24)

“You were taught, with regard to your former way of life, to put off your old self . . . And to put on the new self.”
(Ephesians 4:22, 24)

IN WORD:
Living the Christian life should become as natural to us as changing clothes. We take off the old and we put on the new. The old may have been comfortable, but it is dirty and horribly out of fashion in our new kingdom. The new is the permanent style of the Kingdom of Heaven, and it will cause us to resemble God increasingly. Our responsibility is to continually shed what is no longer appropriate and put on the clothes we have been given.
But many of us walk an unwise path. We claim citizenship in the new kingdom but continue to wear the fashions of the old. In trying to fit in everywhere, we find that we fit in nowhere. We may blend into the old kingdom, but we no longer have proper ID there. We have a new ID for the new kingdom but we’re slow to fit in. Either way, it’s an awkward situation to be in.
What is our reluctance? Why do we hesitate to put on our new clothes? Because we know we will experience rejection, and no one likes rejection. But rejection will come to everyone, either from the world or from the Kingdom of Heaven. The question is not whether we can avoid it, but whose we most want to avoid. Wisdom calls for a choice. Trying to dress for both kingdoms is not a viable option.

IN DEED:
Are you reluctant to place both feet firmly in the Kingdom of God? Do you try to hang on to remnants of your former citizenship? Let them go. Shed them like an old set of ragged clothes. The way to settle into your new kingdom and advance in it is to be reclothed. It’s a daily process. We deny deceitful desires (v. 22) and saturate ourselves in a new attitude (v. 23). We become like God in righteousness and holiness (v. 24). There is no greater wisdom than this.

“We cannot help conforming ourselves to what we love.”
-St. Francis De Sales-