Adopting a New Lifestyle
Every child grows up learning a family culture. How that family talks. How that family disciplines for wrong actions. What are considered wrong actions. How that family celebrates. How that family interacts with those in the world around them. It is natural to grow up and learn how to live from your family.
We are also influenced by the world in which we live. What we watch. What we hear. What we see in politics, sports, and Hollywood.
A third influence is the Devil. An angel who rebelled against God set about to destroy the works of God wherever he found them.
The truth is we all have a fourth influence, a bent to think unhealthy thoughts which leads to unhealthy actions. We can’t escape that bent to twist what is true to something that is all untrue or a mixture of truth and untruth. And in the midst of all that the message of Jesus rings out and when a person believes in him, they are born again.
They are born into a family that has a way of talking. A family that has a way of acting. A family that settles disputes a certain way. A family that celebrates. A family that serves others. This new way of living is at war with our old way of living, the ways of this world and the enemy whoo seeks to steal, kill and destroy.
It is this environment where we wrestle every day to walk in the footsteps of Jesus or as Paul spoke in the letter to the church in Galatia, to keep in step with the Spirit. This isn’t about earning the favor of God. Those who are born again already have the favor of God. This is about learning how to live in the family of God.
In the letter to the church in Ephesus, Paul likened this wrestling match as taking or putting off the old man and putting on the new man. Willfully choosing, now that we have been freed from the power or control of sin to release the Jesus life that is in us. We now have the ability to follow the Spirit of God so we can experience the fruit he wants to bear in our life.
This change requires a choice. If a person says yes to Jesus but has no desire or willingness to want to walk in the life he made available for us, then one would be encouraged to see if they are in the faith at all. It is not possible to say yes to Jesus and continue to live like hell the rest of your days. However the wrestling match will deeper differently for each person with overlapping similarities. We will strive for offering ourselves as instruments of righteousness to God. Again not to enter in to a relationship with Him, but because we are in a relationship with him and the life of Jesus has made us alive to the passions and desires of our heavenly Father.
Choose today to walk in newness of life with the Holy Spirit to guide you. Ask the Holy Spirit to guide you. Ask a mentor to help.
Galatians 5.13-26 You, my brothers and sisters, were called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge the flesh; rather, serve one another humbly in love. For the entire law is fulfilled in keeping this one command: “Love your neighbor as yourself.” If you bite and devour each other, watch out or you will be destroyed by each other. So I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. For the flesh desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the flesh. They are in conflict with each other, so that you are not to do whatever you want. But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law. The acts of the flesh are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God. But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law. Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit. Let us not become conceited, provoking and envying each other.
Colossians 3.8-10; 12-17 But now you must also rid yourselves of all such things as these: anger, rage, malice, slander, and filthy language from your lips. Do not lie to each other, since you have taken off your old self with its practices and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge in the image of its Creator. Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselveswith compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. Bear with each other and forgive one another if any of you has a grievance against someone. Forgive as the Lord forgave you. And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity. Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, since as members of one bodyyou were called to peace. And be thankful. Let the message of Christ dwell among you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom through psalms, hymns, and songs from the Spirit, singing to God with gratitude in your hearts. And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.
Ephesians 4.1-31 As a prisoner for the Lord, then, I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling you have received. Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love. Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace. There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called to one hope when you were called; one Lord, one faith, one baptism; one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all. But to each one of us grace has been given as Christ apportioned it. This is why it says: “When he ascended on high, he took many captives and gave gifts to his people.” (What does “he ascended” mean except that he also descended to the lower, earthly regions? He who descended is the very one who ascended higher than all the heavens, in order to fill the whole universe.) So Christ himself gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors and teachers, to equip his people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ. Then we will no longer be infants, tossed back and forth by the waves, and blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of people in their deceitful scheming. Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will grow to become in every respect the mature body of him who is the head, that is, Christ. From him the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work. So I tell you this, and insist on it in the Lord, that you must no longer live as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their thinking. They are darkened in their understanding and separated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them due to the hardening of their hearts. Having lost all sensitivity, they have given themselves over to sensuality so as to indulge in every kind of impurity, and they are full of greed. That, however, is not the way of life you learned when you heard about Christ and were taught in him in accordance with the truth that is in Jesus. 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. 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.