Put Off the Old Self and Put on the New Self! (1) (Colossians 3:5-17)

Put Off the Old Self

and Put on the New Self! (1)

 

  

 

 

[Colossians 3:5-17]

 

 

       As believers in Jesus, we can distinguish our bodies and yours into past bodies, present bodies, and future bodies:

 

(1)    Past body:

 

In the past, our body was a body of sin (Rom. 6:6).  Here, the body of sin is the body of the old self (v. 6). The body of sin originally became a living soul when God combed it out of the ground and breathed life into the nostrils of the first man, Adam (Gen. 2:7; Ref.: 1 Cor. 15:45).  However, because of Adam's sin, sin entered the body.  In this way, the body of the past, the body of sin (old self), is like Cain (1 Jn. 3:12), a body that hates his brothers and commits murder (v. 15).

 

(2)    Present body:

 

Our body now is the temple of the Holy Spirit where the Holy Spirit dwells (1 Cor. 6:19).  This present body is a new creation, the body of the new man (2 Cor. 5:17), and the body of a slave of righteousness (Rom. 6:18) .  This body of servants of righteousness practices righteousness (1 Jn. 2:29).  In other words, the body of the new person, the servant of righteousness, obeys the Lord's commandment to love one another (3:11, 23).  In addition, the body of the servant of righteousness is the temple of the Holy Spirit (1 Cor. 6:19), and it is a body that bears the fruit of the Holy Spirit, love (Gal. 5:22), and is a body that loves and cannot help but love.

 

(3)    Future body:

 

In the future, our body will be transformed or resurrected at the second coming of Jesus.  Although our body is a blended body, on the day Jesus comes again, our blended body will be transformed like the glorious body of Jesus Christ.  So we will enter heaven.  This future body is an incorruptible body, a glorified body, a spiritual body (1 Cor. 15:42-44), the body of the heavenly people, and will be like the body of Christ who came from heaven (v. 48).  The Lord will transform our lowly body so that it will be like his glorious body (Phil. 3:21).  The Lord will sanctify the church by washing it with water and cleansing it with the word, and present it to himself as a glorious church, without stain or wrinkle or any other defect, holy and blameless (Eph. 5:26-27).  This future glorified body will completely  obey the Lord’s twofold commandment, which is the heavenly commandment: “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.  … Love your neighbor as yourself” (Mt. 22:37, 39).

 

If we look at today's text, Colossians 3:9b and 3:10a, the Bible talks about the people we were in the past and the people we are in the present.  The person from the past is the old self, and the person from the present is the new self.  Today’s Bible tells us, “Put off the old self and its practices and put on the new self.”  I want to meditate and receive lessons from Colossians 3:5-17, about what is the old self and its practices that we must put off and what is the new self that we must put on.

 

What is the old self and its practices that we must first put off?  The Outline Bible commentary is briefly summarized in three points:

 

First, what we must put off is immorality and idolatry.

 

Look at Colossians 3:5 – “Therefore consider the members of your earthly body as dead to immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and greed, which amounts to idolatry.”  Here, the five lists listed by Apostle Paul – immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and greed - are sins that cause us to enjoy earthly things and turn away from God.  It is said that many scholars divide these five sins into two major categories: “sexual sin” and “greed” (Internet):

 

(1)     Sexual sin (Immorality)

 

According to scholars, "immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire" refer to impulses and desires of lewdness that arise within the heart.  Immorality is considered a grave sin in the life of faith, which is why Paul listed it foremost among the sins in his letters (Gal. 5:19; Eph.5:3).  The reason is that those who fall into this sin defile the temple of God, their own bodies, and risk permanently alienating themselves from God (1 Cor. 6:15-20).  Therefore, the Apostle Paul cautioned in 1 Corinthians 6:18-20: "Flee from sexual immorality.  Every other sin a person commits is outside the body, but the sexually immoral person sins against his own body.  Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God?  You are not your own, for you were bought with a price.  So glorify God in your body."

 

(2)     Unlimited possessiveness (Idolatry)

 

This is called “covetousness” and is considered like “idolatry.”  This is also a sin that causes people to leave God.  Those who are greedy are attached to worldly things and pursue them with all their might, leaving God behind.  We can receive material things if it is God's will by seeking first His kingdom and His righteousness (that is, by serving God) (Mt. 6:33).  However, those who ignore this word and seek material things first and value material things more than God are like idolaters.