Pleasing God, Making Disciples of Jesus Christ

Choices We Make

EPHESIANS 4:17-24 – 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. 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. They have become callous and have given themselves up to sensuality, greedy to practice every kind of impurity. But that is not the way you learned Christ!— assuming that you have heard about him and were taught in him, as the truth is in Jesus, to put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires, and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.

THEME OF THE DAY. CHOICES WE MAKE. Each day and throughout each day, God’s people are faced with choices. Granted, every human being makes choices in the living out of daily life, but Christians are unique. They make spiritual decisions. All the time. Even when they are not making them consciously, they do so passively. And the decisions or choices? They are found in today’s scriptures. The Apostle Paul places before us an “either/or” when it comes to living out our lives in Christ – put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires, and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness. Do we see his emphasis? This isn’t about surrendering everything to God and just let life unfold. No. Paul is pointing Christians to personal responsibility in pursuing a Christ-honoring life. We choose daily and throughout our days to either “put off sinful patterns and practices of our old life” or “put on holy patterns and practice of our new life in Christ.” What we are discussing is how we mature as Christians. It is by moment-by-moment acts of obedience to say “no” to sin and “yes” to righteousness. So, with that as an introduction, allow me to offer two applications of encouragement to help us in making the right choices in living out the Christian life.

When temptation to sin comes upon us, and it will – daily – immediately remember who dwells within us – Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body (1 Corinthians 6:19-20). Temptation will lose its strong pull on us when we think what happens if we give in; if we “put on the old self”. And what happens? We grieve and quench the Spirit of God (Ephesians 4:30; 1 Thessalonians 5:19). Keep before us that all temptation is a tactic from the flesh, the world, and the devil to defile the temple of God; our hearts.

Another thing to do when tempted to live out our old sinful patterns of life is realize the power available to us to say “no”. We go back to the words of the Apostle Paul again – No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man. God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation he will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it (1 Corinthians 10:13). For sure the power of temptation is strong, but not as strong as Christ in us, the hope of glory. And what this does is make us decide – the pleasure of sin for a moment or the pleasure of pleasing God. Christians don’t have to sin. We do so by choice. Don’t allow the fleeting delight of sin cloud the painful consequence that it really delivers.

Fellow Christian, we make spiritual choices all day long. May God help us to make the right ones when it comes to battling sin and always remember, the choice is ours to feed temptation leading to sin or starve it leading to holiness.

PRAYER: “Father, I praise You for making me a new creation in Your Son with the power to love Him by obeying Him.”

QUOTE: “Christians make spiritual choices daily – to deny themselves and not sin or fulfill fleshly lusts and sin.”