Love God 5

Ephesians 4:22-24

In today’s society with our modern ways of communicating and staying in contact with one another it is easier to get in touch with people who live far away. Recently I was contacted through e-mail by someone I knew when I was a child. She reminisced on our childhood and the old neighborhood and suggested that we might get together some time.

I hesitate getting in touch with all the many people I knew so many years ago. The biggest reason is that I am not the same person I was forty years ago. Not only have my life and circumstances changed, but I have changed. I do not think and act as I did so long ago.

The letter to the believers in Ephesus makes a comment about spiritual growth. What are we to do with our old self? What is wrong with the old self? What is the goal of the new self?

Whether our beliefs in God came later in life or they have been with us since childhood, the odds are that we are not who we used to be. When we do not have a deep connection with God, or we have no faith at all, we are easily tempted by the corruption of our humanity – a tendency to be selfish, to sin, to act deceitfully. But when we take on a new faith, when we progress in our spiritual growth, we can put away our old habits and behaviors.

Through an acceptance of Christ and a movement forward in our faith we grow to be better people. As Ephesians 4:24 points out, we are to grow in the likeness of God. We should grow to be more holy in our thinking and in the things we do.

2 Peter 1 talks about the progression of spiritual growth for believers. We are to begin with faith and then add goodness to that. Once we have mastered our faith and goodness we can add knowledge and self-control. To continue growing toward that more perfect self, that spirituality that is like God in true righteousness and holiness, we must now add perseverance and godliness.

Godliness is that new self that we need to have. Godliness is that holiness, that God-likeness, that we must exhibit in our life and our ability to love.

DAILY CHALLENGE: How can you be made new, more God-like, in your attitudes?