IN the simplest terms, putting on Christ means patterning our lifestyle after Christ. As you study the gospels, do you observe how Jesus carried himself? How did he talk? How did he relate and interact with others? What kind of attitude did he have? How did he respond to abuses? When you study this, you can then do a list and rate yourself to see how you measure up.
BY PHILLIP CHIDAVAENZI
Colossians 3:8-9 (KJV), “But now ye also put off all these; anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, filthy communication out of your mouth. Lie not one to another, seeing that ye have put off the old man with his deeds…”
The “old man” he is talking about here is not your father. He is talking about that unregenerate man you were before you accepted Christ as your Lord.
Wrath is great anger that manifests itself in a strong desire to punish someone for their wrongdoing. Malice is the desire to inflict injury, harm, or suffering on another person, either because of a hostile impulse or out of a deep-seated grudge over a wrong they inflicted on you.
Peter picks up the thread from where Paul leaves in 1 Peter 2:1 (KJV), “Wherefore laying aside all malice, and all guile, and hypocrisies, and envies, and all evil speakings…”
Praying won’t change this. And God will not take it away. He is not going to take it off you. It’s you who must put these things off. It’s your responsibility. If you say you can’t put them off, it means you’re making God a liar, because He will never ask you to do something you can’t.
Do you know there’s no single person you can’t love? The reason why we struggle to love certain people is because we try to do so after our own self-will. But the capacity of human love is limited. What you need to do is to allow Christ to love that person through you. You must just be a yielded vessel.
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Romans 5:5 (KJV), “And hope maketh not ashamed; because the love of god has been shed abroad in our hearts by the holy ghost which is given unto us.”
The Revised Standard Version of the Bible uses the term “poured” in place of “shed abroad.” This speaks to an exceeding amount of love, a huge capacity to love, which disregards the weaknesses, the shortcomings and failings of the one to be loved.
Only those who are crucified together with Christ can be broken enough to allow God to manifest His love through them — because God doesn’t only love those who love Him.
Galatians 2:20 (KJV), “I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.”
Because Christ now lives in you, it’s your duty to manifest the fruit of the spirit and curtail the works of your flesh.
Galatians 5:19-20 (KJV), “Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these; Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies…”
How, then, do you walk in the spirit? By being consistent with the word of God, walking in the light of his word.
These works of the flesh will take you to hell, your whole life as Christian gone down the drain! Just because of another person? It’s not worth it.
Humility and love will cure bitterness. If someone has hurt you, or said something about you, what does it matter?
Only Jesus Christ is the Lord of your life. He has honoured you and no one can dishonour you, no matter what they do or say. Declare every day that Jesus Christ is the Lord of my life and every day I walk in love.
Your words control your life. The circumstances of your life right now confirm how you speak. And you can only speak out of the abundance of your heart.
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