A Change in Lifestyle

It is great to know that we have a solid foundation in the Lord Jesus, isn't it? And our position in Christ is what really makes all the difference in the world. The Christian life you see is based on our position in Christ and what that means, but we have our lifestyle. In fact, the Christian life is a change in lifestyle. The book of Colossians likens it to a change in clothing. We find something doesn't fit anymore, so we need something a little different. And that's the way the book of Colossians talks about the change in lifestyle that comes about because of regeneration, because of new life in Jesus Christ. Colossians chapter 3 this evening. The Christian life is not just a once a week observance. We gather together, sing a few hymns, pray a few prayers, recite a creed, listen to a message, plunk a little something in the offering plate, and then come back and do it again the next week. That's not the Christian life. The Christian life is not a series of dramatic spiritual experiences either. A lot of people have the view of the Christian life that it's pretty much humdrum, just kind of go along, make the best of it. You can't each day, but occasionally you hit a real high spot, a real dramatic experience, maybe something that some people call a baptism in the spirit, and you really get filled and sealed and all of that, and you're ready for another day or two before you hit bottom again. And you kind of ride these crests, and that's what the Christian life is all about. So you're to seek those times. That's not the way the Bible describes the Christian life either. The Christian life is lifestyle, and it is a change in lifestyle. When you trust the Lord Jesus as your Savior, and that's how we become Christians, when you trust the Lord Jesus as your Savior, you are given new life. That's what regeneration is. It's new birth. You are now a new person in Christ. The old is gone, the new is come. Everything is different. And so you're a new person, you're regenerated, you have new life, and that permeates every area of your life, and demands of us a new lifestyle. Now you don't become a Christian by changing your lifestyle. You become a Christian by trusting Christ as your Savior. But when you trust the Lord Jesus as your Savior, there is incumbent on us, there is expected of us. In fact, there is implanted in us the capability for a new lifestyle, a new kind of a life. There is an old lifestyle that should be put away, and there is a new lifestyle that should be put on, that should be undertaken. Now that's what we're going to talk about this evening. Let me just remind you that the book of Colossians is all about the Lordship of Christ. Chapter one, His Lordship in Creation and the Church. Chapter two, His Lordship in Doctrine. Paul in that chapter is warning against the inroads of false teaching, which have taken place in the church at Corinth, a cult that had taken root in that area and was affecting the church. Jesus Christ, understanding His person, who He is, His Lordship will deal with that problem. That's what Paul does in chapter two. In chapters three and four, Paul deals with the fact that Jesus Christ is Lord of the Christian life. His Lordship in the Christian life is what this is about. The last two chapters are very practical, talking about issues of the Christian life that we need to know. I want to remind you of the verses we looked at last time, verses one through four, where Paul describes for us the power of the Christian life. The power of the Christian life is found in our position in Christ, that we are seated in heavenly places, and because we are in Christ, we have a new opportunity and a new privilege to live a different kind of lifestyle. The power for that lifestyle is set in our position in Jesus Christ. And because of that, we are to pursue heavenly things, we are to think heavenly things. But now we come to the real nuts and bolts of that, how it works out in our lives, in the lifestyle that's to be different. The lifestyle change. The principles of this new lifestyle are found in verses five through seventeen. We're going to look at verses five through eleven tonight, where we find the old lifestyle we are to put off, and then we will next time look at the new lifestyle we're to put on in the next few verses after that. But in verses five through eleven, we are commanded to do away with our old sinful lifestyle, to have a change in lifestyle. And this is a very sharp and direct command. I just want you to, before we jump into the actual description of that lifestyle, where to put away, I want you to see how serious Paul takes this. Look at the words that begin verse five. Put to death, therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly nature. Now the King James translation really doesn't make that much sense to us anymore. It says, mortify, therefore, the deeds of your body. We don't know that word mortify anymore. It's taken on a different meaning to be mortified, simply means to be surprised at something, or to be shocked at something. That's not what Paul was saying. He's not saying just be shocked and go on. Even the New American standard does not really handle the Greek very well here, which it normally does. But it talks about considering the parts of your bodily members to be dead. This is not just a mental exercise here. The Greek word that Paul uses is the strongest word used in the New Testament for putting something to death, or putting someone to death. Literally, it means to kill, to put to death, to render inoperative once and for all. And Paul is saying, put to death. And I like the way the NIV translates it. Put to death, whatever belongs to your earthly nature. What he's saying is do whatever it takes, take drastic action, cut off the lifeblood supply of these things that used to be a part of your life. Do not let them have any moral life in your life. Make a change of lifestyle. Complete break with the past. Now the things we're going to talk about, we're going to see that we don't put off all at once. And just one major decision, and we're done with them forever because these are areas that in our character and our lifestyle that we continue to struggle with. But we are to deal death blows to them. You know, there are some kinds of cancer that doctors are treating now by actually cutting off the blood supply to a tumor, to starve the tumor to death. That's the idea here. Kill it. Put it to death. Cut off its lifeblood. Whatever is feeding it, whatever is causing it to still be there, cut it off. You know, just do away with it. Get away from that. Take decisive action. Put to death. It's that strong. But then Paul uses another metaphor in verse 8. He says, but now you must rid yourselves of all such things as these. Now we're going to see what those things are in a moment. But just want you to see the wording here, the strong wording. Change yourself or put aside. Actually the word means to strip off clothing. It's the word using a New Testament for a change of clothing. That's the reason for the title slide in the message. You know, you find something that doesn't fit anymore. Get it off. Get rid of it. Get something else that fits. And when we come to know Christ, the old lifestyle no longer fits, as believers. And so we're to do away with it. We're to strip it off. There have been at least three times I can remember in our married life where I came home smelling so bad that Jeannie made me take my clothes off. Thankfully she brought out other clothing into the garage so that I could change before I got in the house. I remember one time was when I was visiting Worthy Welch in our first church in North Carolina. Most of our folks there were pig farmers and chicken farmers. And I was helping Worthy that day in his hog house. And I didn't smell too good when I got home. I remember that was one time. I remember a second time in Indiana when a couple of guys in the church, we got together, we were helping one of our guys who was a farmer who was chicken farmer. And he had raised chickens in this chicken house for years. I think probably 20, 25 years. He was going to convert it into a storage building. Well, it was our responsibility to clean out that chicken house before it could be turned into a storage building. If you've ever worked in a chicken house, you know the odor that strikes you when you walk into one of those places, well, when you've been in there all day in the heat of the summer and you walk out, that odor goes with you. That was another time. And I could remember the third time when I could not get in the house without taking off some clothing and putting on something different was a time when some of us guys helped clean out an old house. The guy in our church in Indiana was somewhat mentally retarded and had gotten older and neighbors started noticing that night. Outside of the house would be covered with roaches. And so the health department investigated and sure enough is one of those situations where this guy just piled stuff up all through his house, made little pads through his house. And he was other arrangements were made for him and some of us from the church, they said we're going to burn a house down unless somebody will take responsibility to clean it out. So as a church, we said we'll do that. And this was the heat of the summer in Indiana, which is just as bad as Florida, 100 degrees, very humid. And we had masks, we walked in and in the kitchen there was about three inches of rotten food on the floor. It was absolutely horrible. That was the third time I remember not being able to come back in the house without change of clothing. What Paul is saying here is get rid of the old stuff, get it off, don't even bring it in the house, not God's house, get it off. You got something new to put on. Now we're going to find out what we're going to put on next week. But let's look tonight at the lifestyle we are to put away. The lifestyle we're to put away. First of all, Paul lists a number of things in verse 5, sins of a sexual nature. And I believe all five of these are of a sexual nature. You'll see that one of them doesn't seem to fit, but I believe it does. Notice verse 5, put the death there for whatever belongs to your earthly nature, sexual immorality. Now, all of these sins have to do with sexual sins, some kind of sin of that nature, which was very important in that day for churches and Christians to be warned against because sexual immorality was rampant in the culture in the first century, the Roman culture, the Greek culture. Even the major cultic religions had sexual immorality at their base at the very center of the religion of that day. It was a very pagan culture and very sexually immoral culture. I think we could say the same today. The same is true today. Is it not that we live in a culture where biblical values in this area are questioned more and more all of the time? I came across some statistics recently that shouldn't shock me, but every time I see things like this, they do. And studies indicate that only 62 percent of Christian teens say that the Bible's guidelines for sex apply today, only 62 percent of Christian teenagers say that the Bible's guidelines on sex apply to today. I'm not sure, but what maybe that number is a little high. Of couples getting married today, over 40 percent of them live together before marriage. From daytime soap operas, 94 percent, 94 percent of all sexual situations are with a partner that they're not married to or they're married to someone else. In other words, they're not married at all or they are married to someone else, 94 percent of all situations and soap operas that are indicated on television. It's the kind of lifestyle, the kind of culture that we live in today. And so what is said here is just as needed for us today in the 21st century as it was in the 1st century. And so what does Paul say to put to death? Cut off the lifeblood so the tumor dies. What does he say? Well, there are five things here. The first one's sexual immorality. This is the general word for immorality. It has to do with anything that is sexually immoral, whether it is outside of marriage or inside of marriage. What I mean by that, whether a person is married and what we would think of normally as premarital sexual involvement or whether a person is married and what we would think of normally as adultery, the Bible says, put off both of those. This is a word that covers both of them. There's no distinction made or really any other kind of sexual immorality, which would be homosexuality, any kind of immoral sexual behavior is included in that word there. So Paul says, put that off, put it to death, and then notice the next word, impurity. This is a word which is talking about any kind of moral impurity in any regard, but it has to do mainly with a filthy mind. It has to do with the kind of thoughts that are always, on centrally suggestive things, the humor is always suggestive and of a sexual nature. This kind of person reads something immoral into every situation. It's just the way their thoughts work. It's the way their thoughts have been trained to run in all of the time. This kind of person enjoys perverted fantasies. This is the kind of person that's probably involved in pornography. These kinds of sexual thoughts are constantly there. And Paul says, that is not the kind of lifestyle a Christian ought to be living. So put that to death. That's a part of the old lifestyle. The third word, inverse five is the word lust. This particular word is always used of uncontrolled sexual passion. Anything for selfish gratification outside the proper bounds of marriage, anything for selfish gratification sexually is included in this word lust. Paul says, put it to death. That's not the way a believer ought to be living. And then, fourthly, the word evil desires. Now desires in and of themselves are not wrong. Even sexual desire in and of itself is not wrong. And created is female with the potential for that kind of capability and fulfillment. But obviously, the scriptures limit that to the marriage relationship. But those desires can become evil. And evil desires take the route of some of the other things that we've been talking about. But they always begin in the desires of the heart and the mind. That's where it begins. And so Paul says, again, cut it off at its origin, at the life, blood, origin of sexual sin. Start dealing with the desires, with the passions and thoughts of your heart and mind. And then the fifth sexual sin that he mentions or sin of a sexual nature may not at first seem to fit. It's the word greed. He says, put off greed, which is idolatry or put to death, greed, which is idolatry. And at first, it may seem that this really doesn't fit. This is a different kind of sin. But Paul's going to deal with some other different kinds of sins later. And it would seem strange that he would just kind of throw in one of an entirely different nature here at the end of this list. In fact, I don't believe it is different. I believe it is the same thing. The greed that's spoken of here is a desire for a seeking after anything that is outside God's will for you. Now it may be material things and in many contexts in the New Testament, it has to do with material things. But in this context, I think it is dealing with anything that is outside the boundary lines of what God says in His Word in regard to sexual fulfillment is greed. By the way, this same word, same word translated greed here, is used in 1 Thessalonians chapter 4. Let me just read the verse there. And it is again in a context of sexual sin. 1 Thessalonians 4 verse 6. He says, and that in this matter, no one should wrong his brother or take advantage of him. The Lord will punish me for all such sins as we've already told you and warned you in the context. He's very clear. He's talking about verse 3, sexual immorality. Learn to control your own body in a way that's holy and honorable. He's not in passion at last, verse 5, like they even. And so he talks about taking advantage of another, the taking advantage of another person. In this context, sexually, is the same word translated greed in our passage. So the idea is you do not take what doesn't belong to you, sexually. Okay? Now it's interesting to me that in the last of the 10 commandments, in Exodus chapter 20 and verse 17, it's on the screen as was the other passage, which I just noticed. I should have known. I'm the one that asked for it to be put up there. Anyway, it's late on Sunday. You shall not covet your neighbor's house. You shall not covet your neighbor's wife. Isn't that interesting? The last commandment that has to do with coveting includes greed or coveting of a sexual nature. You shall not covet your neighbor's wife. Where's man, servant, maid, servant, ox, donkey, anything that belongs to your neighbor. But it includes that which is out of bounds sexually. I think in the context during Colossians, Paul is talking about, if you can use this term, sexual greed, greed which is sensual in nature. And that is idolatry, just as any greed is, because self-interest is placed between you and God. So these sins of a sexual nature, Paul says, put to death. That's part of the old lifestyle. It doesn't belong in the Christian's life and thinking and response toward life. So put it to death. But then notice, he gives us a second list of sins down in verses 8 and 9. And these are sins of attitude and speech. There are six of them, and all three of them have to do with attitudes. Three of them have to do with speech. Millions of attitude and speech. Notice them if you will, verse 8. But now you must rid yourselves, again, remember the word means to take off clothing so you can put on different clothing, get rid of it, no longer fits you. What are we to put off, rid ourselves of? All such things as these, anger, rage, malice, slander, and filthy language from your lips, and then verse 9 do not lie to each other. So lying is the sixth one. Let's just take a quick look at those six sins. The first three have to do with attitudes. The first one, verse 8. Anger. This is the word actually for a settled attitude of mind. It's what we might think of as bitterness, resentment, something that has kind of sat on the back burner for a long time, and just the heat is kept on it enough to keep it simmering. It's something that may have happened in your life or something you may have had trouble with with someone else or whatever. You've just allowed that to kind of sit there and simmer for years. This kind of bitterness, personal animosity that would lead to revenge if you had the opportunity. That's the kind of anger he's talking about here. And that's the kind of anger that Paul says we need to take off, get rid of that. Don't bring that into the house. Just take off that piece of clothing, leave it behind. You'd get rid of that. The second attitude is described with the word rage. Now rage is anger, but anger of a different sort. Rage is not settled, bitterness, resentment kind of anger that's been growing and building maybe for years. Rage is just out front and noticeable to everybody. It is an outburst of anger. It is letting it fly. It is venting your spleen. We have a lot of ways of describing it, but it's the kind of anger that just pulls out both barrels and starts firing and lets a person have it. Paul says it doesn't fit with your new life. Take off that clothing, get rid of that. That doesn't belong, doesn't fit in your new life. That's interesting that the Bible talks about the anger of God and the wrath of God and even the rage of God, same word as used of God at times. So if it's okay for God, why is it okay for us? The difference is God's wrath and anger are always of a pure nature and always controlled by his holiness and his purposes. Paul is talking about sinful wrath and anger on our part, which is not for righteous purposes. There's very little righteous indignation on our part, not as much as we'd like to think, anyway. But he's talking about the kind of explosion of anger and the kind of deep-seated resentment and bitterness which is unholy. Now the Bible does teach that God is angry with sinners every day. The Bible does teach that God will pour out his wrath someday on this earth in a very visible way. But all of that is under the control of the holiness and justice of God and is always pointed at sin. And by the way, anger on the part of a Christian is legitimate if it's pointed towards sin. One of the greatest motivators for cleaning our lives up is if we get angry enough at ourselves because of the sin in our lives that we decide this is enough, I'm going to do something about this. And that kind of godly anger is a good thing. But that's not what Paul's talking about here. Paul's talking about sinful anger and rage. Notice the third word, malice. Malice. Malice is a vicious disposition. It's the kind of spirit that wants to get back at someone. It's the kind of spirit that wants, that prompts you to injure someone if you can. Now you may not literally strike out at a person and physically injure them, but if you can you would say something or work situations around to where that person will look bad or be made to feel bad. That's malice. And the Bible says, get rid of that. That clothing no longer fits for the believer. It's not a part of your lifestyle now. So get rid of those three attitudes, anger, rage, malice. And then notice three kinds of speech that he says we need to get rid of. The first is slander. Slander is malice in words, really. It's the kind of speech that injures someone else. It's the kind of harmful speech that we may hurl at someone else. It may be angry speech. It may be just vicious words of description of someone else. But words that are intended to hurt someone, to injure someone. Paul says, get rid of those. They don't fit your lifestyle anymore as a believer. Slander. And then notice filthy language. Filthy language is any kind of speaking which dishonors another person, which is disgraceful, which is obscene, which is abusive to someone else. That's filthy language. This is just not swearing. This is not just curse words. This is any kind of word which degrades someone else or tears them down or dishonors them. You may not call them a bad name, but you speak of them in such a way that dishonors them. The Bible says that's filthy language. Get rid of that. It doesn't fit anymore. Then the last one, do not lie to each other. There are all kinds of lying, aren't there? We talk about little white lies. We talk about exaggerations of the truth. We talk about just kind of painting a picture to make ourselves look better, which is really deceiving not really what happened all of those things. In addition to blatant lies are included in the concept here. Do not lie to each other. The recent US News and World Report article was entitled United States, a nation of liars. And it went on to detail the number of ways in which there's dishonesty and corruption and deceit rampant in our society. I mean, from the highest levels on down corporate everything. It just deceit and lying and dishonesty. And certainly it seems to be so accepted in our society today that any amount of truthfulness, any amount of honesty is almost shocking and refreshing to the point that certainly the lifestyle of a believer should be in stark contrast to the kind of lying that Paul's talking about here. It's the sense of attitude and speech that we're to put off. Paul says, put the death, take off these attitudes. They're no longer a part of your lifestyle. This is the lifestyle that we're to put away. But I want to hasten on to give you four reasons to put away this lifestyle that Paul describes here. And we can look at these rather quickly. Verse 6 is the first one because it brings the wrath of God. Verse 6, because of these, the wrath of God is coming. Now that's interesting. We just talked about anger, wrath, rage. Here's God's wrath. God's wrath, as I said before, is his unchanging holiness and his expression of his holiness against sin. That is unchanging. He cannot be indifferent to sin, simply impossible for a holy God. Now the Bible says that if you are an unbeliever, if you have never trusted Christ as your Savior, you are already under God's wrath. It's not a matter of God being mad at you because of something you do. You are already under His wrath. Look at John 336. Look at this verse, if you will. Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life, but whoever rejects the Son will not see life, for God's wrath remains on Him. So if you don't receive the Son, you don't see life. You don't have eternal life. And God's wrath, when that judgment is carried out, God's wrath is spoken of as remaining on you, which indicates that we are under God's wrath at all times unless we are saved. He is only the death of Christ and His payment for our sin that brings us out from under God's holy judgment, God's wrath. Now see God's wrath will be visible someday. It will be poured out upon this earth during the tribulation time and it will be carried out in the life of every unsaved person when they are cast into the lake of fire. But every unsaved person is already under God's wrath. It's just not carried out yet. The sentence is there, just hasn't been carried out yet. And so what Paul is saying is these things which bring the wrath of God because God is holy and He hates sin. He's angry at sin because of that. These have no place in a believer's life. Remember, when you're living this kind of lifestyle, you're living a kind of lifestyle that brings God's wrath and judgment. So that's a good reason to put it off. Second reason, because it's the character of the old, unregenerate life. These descriptions of the old lifestyle have to do with what you were before you got saved. Look at verse 7. You used to walk in these ways. In the life you once lived. I love the way Paul uses the word walk. It's throughout the epistles, Paul uses that word of your behavior, your lifestyle, the word we're using tonight. Your lifestyle, Paul says, your walk, the way you walked around each day, the way you lived your life, your lifestyle was characterized by these kinds of things in the past. He goes on to say, you lived in them. This was the life you once lived. That was the atmosphere that you breathed in every day. This was the kind of thing that was expected. And isn't this the way the world lives? Somebody does me wrong. You better believe I'm going to do all I can to get them back. It's give them a dose of their own medicine, equal pay for equal crime. You know, sure, that's the way you got to live. Nobody else is going to watch out for you. You got to watch out for yourself. That's just the way unsafe people live. That's the way the unregenerate mind thinks. So Paul says, no, wait a second, that's the way you used to live. You used to walk. That's a part of your old, unregenerate lifestyle. Don't live that way anymore. You're not the same person you once were. And that leads me to the third reason that Paul gives. That is because of our position in Christ. Look at verse 9. Paul says, do not lie to each other. This you have taken off your old self with its practices and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge of the image of its creator. Come back to that in just a moment. But notice, interesting, Paul says, you have put off the old self with its practices and you have put on a new self. What he's talking about there is our position in Christ. Same thing you said in 2 Corinthians 5, 17. Once you get saved, you're a new creation. Old things are past. The new has come. You're a new person in Christ. You've put off the old life. Now what he's talking about there is positionally because we are in Christ, everything we were as an unsaved person. The unregenerate, unsaved person is now gone. That's forever in the past. That's not who you are now. You are a new person in Christ. Being off the old self, believe the King James called it the old man, that's not something we are to do. That's something that is automatically done for us in salvation because of our position in Christ. So we're not supposed to go around trying to crucify the flesh and do away with the old man, that kind of thing. That's already done for us. It's our part of our position in Christ. We are a new person. We are no longer seen by God as being in Adam, a sinner. We are now a saint in Christ. Because of our position in Christ, then we need to live that out in our lifestyle. We need to live a new lifestyle. Our position in Christ is reason enough for us to put off the old and put on the new. The fourth reason, however, is in verse 10. That is because there should be constant growth in the Christian's life. There should be constant growth in the believer's life. He says at the end of verse 10, well look at verse 10, and have put on the new self which is being renewed in knowledge in the image of its creator. This new self, this new person that you are in Christ as a believer, a person who's now regenerated, had new life in Christ. This new person that you are still needs to grow every day. You see, the new person gives you the new person you are in Christ. Your position in him as a believer gives you the capability to become more like Christ. It does not automatically make you like Christ in the way you live, but it gives you the capability, the potential for that. Now the way you actually get there is a process of being renewed in knowledge in the image of its creator. In other words, as we grow in our knowledge of the Word of God and of the God of the Word, and we have this desire to become more like him growing in us, then we are being renewed. You see, the old is being replaced by new ways of thinking, new ways of responding, new ways of speaking to and about people, new attitudes and thought life processes and all that. That's being replaced and the new is growing more and more and more to be a part of the way of who we are, what we do and the way we think, the way we talk, we're being renewed. And that renewal is making us like Christ, we're in the image of our creator. Now in that process, it's interesting that Paul would bring this in, but in that process, there's no distinction or preference that any particular person may have over another. We are all on equal ground in our ability to become like Christ. In verse 11, he says, here, here there is no Greek or Jew. There's no racial distinction. In that time the two races that really had clashes were Greeks and Jews. And because the culture was basically a Greek culture, the Jews had all kinds of trouble with that. And there was a lot of racial distinction and trouble there, ethnic division. And what Paul is saying is when you become a believer, all that's behind you and you're simply focused on Jesus Christ and you are growing, doesn't matter what race you are. We all have the same potential to become like Jesus Christ. And he says there is no circumcised or uncircumcised. That's religious distinctions. It doesn't matter what religion you may have come out of, that gives no one any kind of preference in growth in Christ. You may have come out of some kind of orthodox religious group or you may have been a pagan, doesn't matter. And you get saved, you start out on the same ground, same floor, same level and you each have the opportunity to grow. You may have come out of a cult, you may have come out of a very organized religious group, you may have come out of a world religion, you may have come out of Roman Catholicism, Islam, whatever doesn't matter. We all start at the same level. You see our religious background has nothing to do with our growth in Christ. It's the fact that we're new believers, we're new people in Christ that gives us the potential to grow. So it's not eugeniles and new Jews here, religious. And then notice culture is not a part of this either. And he mentions two of the worst uncultured groups of people you can think of in the first century, barbarian and sithian. There are barbarians that comes from the Greek word barbar which means you couldn't speak Greek. You know, if you couldn't speak Greek in that day, you kind of barbar, barbar, you just kind of mumbled, you know, you were just considered some kind of backwards pagan because you couldn't speak Greek. That was the cultured language of the day, you see. That's what everybody who knew anything spoke. You're a barbarian, you're uncultured. The only thing that could be worse than that would be a sithian. Sithians were from, in this particular day, southern, what we would consider today, southern Russia. They were way out back. This was on the fringes of organized society. This was almost like the Stone Age of the day. These people were considered the most barbaric, the most uncultured, uncouth, wild, next to animals, kind of people. If you were a sithian, that's the lowest level you could get to as far as culture was concerned. Paul says there are no cultural distinctions in Christ. It doesn't matter what your background is. You have the same potential to grow, to be like Jesus Christ. Whether you come from the finest culture or you're a sithian, it doesn't matter. Or a barbarian, it doesn't matter. And then there is no division or distinction by social standing. Look at it. There's neither slave or free, but Christ is all and is in all. It doesn't matter what your social standing is. Whether you come from the highest levels of society or the lowest, even from slave groups. In that day, it doesn't matter. There's no difference. We are all as believers in Christ and the whole thing is about Jesus Christ and how we grow in Him has nothing to do with background. So everybody has the same capacity to grow to be like Jesus Christ no matter what kind of background you come from. The important thing is that Christ is all, the focus is on Him and He is in all and that's what makes us different. We're not different from each other because we're of different races or different social standings or backgrounds or different cultural backgrounds. We're not different from each other in those ways in the family of God. The thing that makes us alike is that we are in Christ and Christ is in us so we can grow to be like Him. So Paul is saying, there should be constant growth as a part of your new lifestyle. I wonder, and maybe it would be good for all of us to ask ourselves this evening. As we think about this passage, how much of the old lifestyle are we still living? How many of the sins of a sexual nature are we still living in? The sins of attitude and speech were still living just like the world. How much of that is still a part of our lives? And if so, do we not realize that that's the kind of lifestyle that brings God's wrath? That's why sin is son to die to release us from those kinds of things. Do we not realize that's the character of an unregenerate life, of the old life? It's not to characterize our new life. Do we not realize that we have a new position in Christ and we should be growing constantly in living out that position to be more like Him? Don't forget the theme of this book is the Lordship of Christ. And the question Paul is addressing right here is, is Jesus Christ really the Lord of your life personally? Is he ruling? Is he controlling in every area of your life so that you're becoming to be more like Him? That's the question. Join me in prayer, please. May we help us not to forget who we are, that we are your children, born anew from above, new people, that we are not the same as what we once were. I pray that you would help us to live that difference out in our daily lifestyle. May we put to death the things of the old life and rid ourselves, put off as old clothing, smelly clothing, which is no longer fitting for a believer, put it off. Lord help us to put away the old lifestyle and to put on the new lifestyle that we have in you and grow in it daily. We ask for your help because we're not able to do it on our own. So help us in Jesus' name.