The Pledge of God's Presence
Co-workers with the Truth
Ephesians 4:17-25 The Message
17-19 And
so I insist—and God backs me up on this—that there be no going along
with the crowd, the empty-headed, mindless crowd. They’ve refused for so
long to deal with God that they’ve lost touch not only with God but
with reality itself. They can’t think straight anymore. Feeling no pain,
they let themselves go in sexual obsession, addicted to every sort of
perversion.
20-24 But
that’s no life for you. You learned Christ! My assumption is that you
have paid careful attention to him, been well instructed in the truth
precisely as we have it in Jesus. Since, then, we do not have the excuse
of ignorance, everything—and I do mean everything—connected with that
old way of life has to go. It’s rotten through and through. Get rid of
it! And then take on an entirely new way of life—a God-fashioned life, a
life renewed from the inside and working itself into your conduct as
God accurately reproduces his character in you.25 What this adds up to, then, is this: no more lies, no more pretense. Tell your neighbor the truth. In Christ’s body we’re all connected to each other, after all. When you lie to others, you end up lying to yourself.
For Reflection
To
be a Christian is to set one's self apart from the common assumptions
of one's culture. Christians live in a culture but are not of the
culture. Even some who claim to be Christian have followed a path of
confusing cultural norms, thinking those norms are Godly. The Wisdom of
Christ is to know the difference between authentic and false witness to
God.
Pray
Pray
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