Ephesians 4:17–24 (ESV)
The
New Life
17 Now this I say and testify
in the Lord, that you must no longer walk as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their minds. 18 They are darkened in their understanding, alienated
from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, due to their hardness of heart. 19 They have become callous and have given themselves up to sensuality, greedy to practice every kind of impurity. 20 But
that is not the way you learned Christ!— 21 assuming that you have heard about him and were taught in him, as the truth is in Jesus, 22 to put off your old self, which belongs to your
former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires, 23 and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, 24 and to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness
and holiness.
Paul has some strong words as to
how we should live and behave as a Christian. It seems that too often, Christians continue to walk in the same paths of darkness that they walked before being saved. We are a new creation and are to walk in the light of Christ, not to continue
walking in darkness. Listen to how Paul describes how the Gentiles live and walk. “19 They have become callous and have given themselves up to sensuality, greedy to practice every kind of impurity. 20 But
that is not the way you learned Christ!” Paul describes how we should live: “22 to put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires, 23 and
to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, 24 and to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.
I pray: O Lord, help me to flee darkness and to walk in the light. Help me to put on Christ in my daily walk. I give thanks to the faith
you have given me, help me to trust it. Amen.