#1125. Put the ‘earthly nature’ to death (20/8/24)

https://www.communitychurchputney.com/post/1125-put-the-‘earthly-nature’-to-death-20-8-24

Welcome to this Come to Jesus Daily Devotional and our summer inspiration series. Today, we reflect on how we have a completely new life in Christ and yet we are to fight against the temptation to put on the practices of our old selves.

To watch this devotional, follow the link below:

https://youtu.be/5EdMcH3L0qg

‘Put to death, therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly nature: sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires and greed, which is idolatry. Because of these, the wrath of God is coming. You used to walk in these ways, in the life you once lived. But now you must also rid yourselves of all such things as these: anger, rage, malice, slander, and filthy language from your lips.’ (Colossians 3:5-8)

Colossians 3:5–8

You’re sitting at home and you wonder if you imagined it…did I see something in the corner of my eye? Then, pandemonium breaks out with people screaming and climbing on chairs as they cry out, “A mouse, there, it’s run under the drawers!” Now you have to work out how you will kill it or get rid of it!

This is like our Christian lives; Jesus has ‘raised us’ - renewed and forgiven - but we are still subject to the temptations of our old lives (the ‘earthly nature’) and we must learn to recognise and ‘put to death’ such things because they don’t belong in our new life and home!

Yesterday, we saw that we are ‘raised with Christ’ (3:1). Our old self is dead and we are now a ‘new creation’. However, the exhortations in this letter are proof that we are still prone to temptation and sin. This is because we still have what Paul here calls ‘your earthly nature’ (v.5) and ‘old self’ (v.9) often this is termed the ‘flesh’ (sarx). This is what remains in us that is rebellious to God. Paul writes:

‘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.’ (Galatians 5:17)

Galatians 5:17

Someone once compared this idea of refusing to listen to the ‘flesh’ to leaving the army. A man in the army was used to jumping to attention and obeying the sergeant major’s barking orders. However, one day he leaves the army and as he’s walking through the barrack gates, he hears the orders of the sergeant and, he’s tempted to obey. However, it dawns on him that he’s no longer in the army and so is not under his authority. With this new understanding he walks away, ignoring the shouts of the sergeant that follow him through the gates.

Likewise, we must learn to walk according to our new nature and put off and keep off what belongs to the old. This is a kind of civil war that is going on within us and as Christians, it’s vital that we ‘keep in step with the Spirit’. As we finish, here a two texts to meditate and pray out of:

‘So I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh.’ (Galatians 5:16)

Galatians 5:16

‘Dear friends, I urge you, as foreigners and exiles, to abstain from sinful desires, which wage war against your soul.’ (1 Peter 1:11)

1 Peter 1:11