28.f. “What sort of people ought you to be in lives of holiness and godliness”

 

Philippians 1:27  Only let your manner of life be worthy of the gospel of Christ,

 Colossians 1:10    so as to walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him: bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God;

 2 Peter 3:11  Since all these things are thus to be dissolved, what sort of people ought you to be in lives of holiness and godliness,

 1 Thessalonians 2:11-12   For you know how, like a father with his children,  we exhorted each one of you and encouraged you and charged you to walk in a manner worthy of God, who calls you into his own kingdom and glory.

Walking in a manner worthy of God totally depends on how we know, understand, and see God.  If we see Him as absent and far away, or if our understanding of Him is nothing more than a concept, we fail in our knowledge of Him.  If we see Him as far away (not present)  we will allow sinful thoughts, spoken words, and actions into our daily lives. If all we understand of Him is conceptually (theoretically) then we have no mature knowledge, faith, hope, trust, or reliance.  When we see, understand, and grow in our knowledge of God omniscient – all-knowing, God omnipresent – present everywhere, God omnipotent – all-powerful, we will start to understand why Jesus, Paul, David, Peter, James, Job, Abraham, Moses, Elijah. Elisha, etc…… keep reminding over and over again who God is and why it is important to walk in a manner worthy of Him.  How this life-walk manifests its self in our lives is a direct reflection of our maturity, understanding, and knowledge of Him. It is sad to say many Christian’s walks paints a very shallow understanding and knowledge of Him.  The words they speak and the actions of their lives reflect much closer to a person who does not give God a passing thought than a child of God. Meditate on His Word, read it, study it, write down your thoughts with a desire and seeking that God will and does open up the eyes to our hearts and minds of Him.

21.f. “Cast off and cast away your cloak of filthy rags”

 

 

 

Romans 13:12   The night is far gone; the day is at hand. So then let us cast off the works of darkness and put on the armor of light. Let us walk properly as in the daytime, not in orgies and drunkenness, not in sexual immorality and sensuality, not in quarreling and jealousy. But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to gratify its desires.

 Ezekiel 18:31-32   Cast away from you all the transgressions that you have committed, and make yourselves a new heart and a new spirit! Why will you die, O house of Israel?  For I have no pleasure in the death of anyone, declares the Lord GOD; so turn, and live.”

 John 3:19-21   And this is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil.

 1 John 1:5-7   This is the message we have heard from him and proclaim to you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all.  If we say we have fellowship with him while we walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth.

 Galatians 5:16   But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh.

 1 Thessalonians 2:12   we exhorted each one of you and encouraged you and charged you to walk in a manner worthy of God, who calls you into his own kingdom and glory.

We must cast off before we can put on. “The rags of sin must come off if we put on the robe of Christ. There must be a taking away of the love of sin, there must be a renouncing of the practices and habits of sin, or else a man cannot be a Christian. It will be an idle attempt to try and wear religion as a sort of celestial overall over the top of old sins.” (Spurgeon)

The flesh will be as active as we allow it to be. We have a work to do in walking properly, as in the day – it isn’t as if Jesus does it for us as we sit back; instead, He does it through us as we willingly and actively partner with Him. (Guzik)

Spurgeon makes the point of the idle attempt to think it is possible to wear the cloak of religion over the top of unrepentant, unchanged, self-reliant, self-worthy, and self-serving heart, and expect it to, by some means, make you right before God’s eyes.  There are those who spit on the garment of salvation.  They want no part of it.  They see this garment as a filthy rag.  They deny it has any beauty or purpose. 

There are people that may recognize the need for Christ but they continue to wear the cloak of self-reliance to cover their sin rather than an intentional choice to cast off the cloak of all hope in anything they can do and put on the garment of salvation.  They are quick-change artists.  They are able to slap an off-market garment that gives the appearance of being a Christian but under that garment still remains the filthy rags of un-repented sin and self-reliance.  They never want to take off their filthy rags only cover them up.  

The Word of God exposes the stench and ugliness of these filthy rags we cling to so tightly. In His Word, we are able to see them for what they are.  We smell the stench and see the ugliness.  We become aware and are able to cast them off.  It is in this “casting off” that we are able to put on the pure clean garment of salvation.  Casting off requires us to recognize the stench and ugliness of what cloaks our hearts, minds, and souls.  Without this recognition, the need for the garment of salvation will never be put on.  Jesus Christ paid the price (bought our new garment) and when we recognize the filthy rags clothing us and humbly take them off and lay them at His feet, He places this new garment of salvation on us.  The stench and ugliness garments are removed forever.  

The stench and ugliness of our filthy rags is sin.  The garment of salvation is believing in, clinging to, trusting in, and relying on and in Jesus Christ.  Recognition, confession, repentance, turning away, from the cloak of sin to the garment of salvation is an intentional choice.  We can never buy the garment of salvation, it can only be given to us by Jesus Christ as we cast off our cloak of filthy rags.