Colossians 3:4-11
When Christ who is our life appears, then you also will appear with Him in glory.
Therefore put to death your members which are on the earth: fornication, uncleanness, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry. Because of these things the wrath of God is coming upon the sons of disobedience, in which you yourselves once walked when you lived in them.
But now you yourselves are to put off all these: anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, filthy language out of your mouth. Do not lie to one another, since you have put off the old man with his deeds, and have put on the new man who is renewed in knowledge according to the image of Him who created him, where there is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcised nor uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave nor free, but Christ is all and in all.
Personal Challenge...
In the Orthodox Church this passage and Luke 14:16-24 are read every year on the second Sunday before Christmas as we remember the Holy Ancestors of Christ. This has been a tradition for over 1,000 years.
But now you yourselves are to put off all these: anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, filthy language out of your mouth. Do not lie to one another, since you have put off the old man with his deeds, and have put on the new man who is renewed in knowledge according to the image of Him who created him, where there is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcised nor uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave nor free, but Christ is all and in all.
Personal Challenge...
In the Orthodox Church this passage and Luke 14:16-24 are read every year on the second Sunday before Christmas as we remember the Holy Ancestors of Christ. This has been a tradition for over 1,000 years.
These verses teach us about true asceticism: As baptized Christians, we are becoming in practice what we are already in spirit. As we died with Christ, so we must will to experience death daily by killing old sinful and disintegrating passions (vv. 5–9). As we were raised with Christ, so we must will to experience life daily by the virtuous and unifying desires of the new man we all are in the body of Christ (vv. 10–14). (taken from The Orthodox Study Bible)
In light of the tragic events this past week: 26 shooting victims in Connecticut, 20 stabbing victims in China, bombings and killings in Afganistan and Pakistan, and many other events in OUR world, I have been prompted to search my heart, mind, and soul for my response to this.
As a Christian I (we all are) am commanded, "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself." (Matthew 22:37-39) My response is to love my neighbor. To love them before during, and after these events. This love does not include politicizing, evangelizing, proselytizing condemning, retaliating, etc. but loving like God loves...enough to let His Son die.
In light of the tragic events this past week: 26 shooting victims in Connecticut, 20 stabbing victims in China, bombings and killings in Afganistan and Pakistan, and many other events in OUR world, I have been prompted to search my heart, mind, and soul for my response to this.
As a Christian I (we all are) am commanded, "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself." (Matthew 22:37-39) My response is to love my neighbor. To love them before during, and after these events. This love does not include politicizing, evangelizing, proselytizing condemning, retaliating, etc. but loving like God loves...enough to let His Son die.
Maybe it is time to stop looking at the world through my eyes, my desires, my biases and look at it through God's. Isn't that what "willing" to live like Christ is all about?
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