Ignorant No More

(a meditation on Ephesians 4:17-5:21)

I’ve been saved! Not just from the destruction of sin, but from the “futility of my mind” that held me there: “darkened in my understanding,” “alienated from the life of God,” out of “ignorance” due to “hardness of heart” that did not acknowledge God but made me my own god.

But when the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ broke in, I learned to put off the old self – the self that lived out of what seemed right to my own mind, what felt right to my corrupted emotions, and what me the urgent desires of my fallen flesh. And I learned instead to put on the new self – renewed in spirit after the image of God in true righteousness and holiness.

And what a contrast there is between the fruit of living out of ignorance as an animal driven by feelings and desires and needs in the futility of my own thinking, and the fruit of living as a spirit-being filled with the Spirit of God and imitating Him as a dearly loved child.

But be aware, self – this isn’t just good material for deep thinking, this is good material for daily living: “Look carefully then to how you walk.” You can easily slip into animal mode if you’re not actively seeking the will of the Lord and being filled with His Spirit. How do you stay filled? Live in the constant (“in everything”) place of thanksgiving and adoration. Acknowledge that He is, and that you are His, and that He is freedom and perfection… constantly! Don’t waste a moment living in the unfruitful ignorance you once walked in – unaware of God’s existence and His glory that shines the light on who you really are.

^{Eph 4:17} 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.

It Is Finished

(a meditation on Colossians 3:1-17)

It is finished! You have done it! It is only waiting to be fully revealed.

You

are

my

life!

Me has died, and me in Christ is now my life.

So the charge is: live, and particularly, think, out of the heavenly man, holy and beloved in Christ and Him in me, not out of the earthly man down here on his own. Put him to death – he’s not you anymore. Put to death that man that lives out of his own passions. You once lived there, but the new you lives out of a different place – out of Christ’s love dwelling in you richly through His Word. Put to death the self-seeking, ambitious, vindictive ways of the old man, and put on the new man that’s like its Creator: compassionate and kind, patient and meek, forgiving and loving.

Let the image of your Creator – the word of Christ – dwell in you richly. Meditate, ponder and sing with thanksgiving in your heart about Whose you became and Who you received. And everything you do, do it out of Christ in you; do it conscious of being joined to Him; conscious of the two become one flesh; conscious that He’s given you His name and His nature… and so do it giving thanks to the perpetual miracle that is your life hidden in Christ.

^{Col 3:1} If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. ² Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth. ³ For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. ⁴ When Christ who is your life appears, then you also will appear with him in glory.

One Love

(a meditation on Philippians 2:1-11)

There’s something miraculous and other-worldly about Christian love. Only in the body of Christ can we love with “the same love” and “the same mind,” “in one accord.” Because it really is the same love. Not just some agreement on what outwardly our love is going to look like; it’s the same love inside us.

It’s love that comes from the encouragement that’s in Christ, the comfort that’s in His love, the participation of the Spirit, the affection and sympathy of the gospel. It’s love that comes from a new spirit that is ours in Christ Jesus – His Spirit. One that empties itself and takes on the form of a servant and in ultimate humility obeys in sacrificial love – not even counting it to His own credit as noble or kind, but only simple obedience to the Father’s heart.

Our love is one in its definition – where so many have so many conflicting, competing ideas; it’s one in its source; it’s one in its substance; it’s one in its motivation. There’s none of the conflicting motives of my love out of my need to feel noble clashing with your love out of your need to be loved in return. No, this is that same love that’s in Christ – the love of One whose needs are met and whose heart is secure; the love of one without ambition and without conceit.

This is humble, simple obedience to the Father’s heart, without agenda because there’s nothing left to be gained and nothing left to be proved. He alone is noble and good and love… and He is ours. The one and only hope that remains to us is that we might, like Jesus, get to carry His name and bring Him glory through obedient love.

^{Php 1:9} And it is my prayer that your love may abound more and more, with knowledge and all discernment, ¹⁰ so that you may approve what is excellent, and so be pure and blameless for the day of Christ, ¹¹ filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ, to the glory and praise of God.

Holding on to Hope

(a meditation on Colossians 1:9-29)

Just what is this inheritance of the saints in the light?! This mystery hidden for ages, but now revealed?! So simple, but so profound: Christ in me the hope of glory!

I

get

God!

And You make known this mystery, not to get me to work at figuring out how to do it, but to declare that it is done and to cause me to cling to the hope of the gospel. To give me patience and longsuffering with joy in the process – never losing sight of the promise.

And that clinging in hope comes from the most glorious of places: knowing the exceeding worth of You! It comes in my heart hearing Jesus preached – the image of God, the Creator of all… now my Head and my Fullness. It comes in seeing how extraordinary this gift of union is – me an enemy in my mind, hostile to Your ways, reconciled at the Cross, made to fit again in You.

So Jesus, be my meditation: Your extraordinary otherness, the beauty of Your holiness. Til my heart does not find it extraordinary that such a price was necessary at the Cross to achieve so shocking a change in position as the one that happened when I was reconciled to You and joined to You forever… and til my heart does not find it extraordinary that there is a cross and a wrestling and a painful, costly, lengthy dying and resurrecting for me. Til I rejoice in filling up in my sufferings – for my own sake and the Bride’s – what little more I can give for so incredible a process and a promise. Fill my heart with the eternal weight of glory that makes it all just a momentary light affliction. That keeps me clinging to hope, and always giving thanks!

⁹ And so, from the day we heard, we have not ceased to pray for you, asking that you may be filled with the knowledge of his will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding, 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. ¹¹ May you be strengthened with all power, according to his glorious might, for all endurance and patience with joy, ¹² giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of the saints in light.