Living the daily life the Lord desires you to live

Colossians 3:5-14 (NIV)

Put to death, therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly nature: sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires and greed, which is idolatry.  Because of these, the wrath of God is coming.  You used to walk in these ways, in the life you once lived. But now you must rid yourselves of all such things as these: anger, rage, malice, slander, and filthy language from your lips. Do not lie to each other, since you have taken off your old self with its practices and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge in the image of its Creator. Here there is no Greek or Jew, circumcised or uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave or free, but Christ is all, and is in all. Therefore, as God's chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. Bear with each other and forgive whatever grievances you may have against one another. Forgive as the Lord forgave you. And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity.

I am not certain that there is a better section of the entire Bible that gives such clear guidance for the kind of daily life the Lord wants His people to live.  My Bible contains the subheading for Chapter 3 as “Rules for Holy Living”.  Paul provides very specific descriptions on how you, if you claim to be a Christian, should act every day of your life.  Before you were a Christian and as you will continue to see non-believers act around you, your earthly nature prevailed.  Paul lists at least 11 characteristics of a person who is not controlled by Christ.  It is these characteristics, e.g. sexual immorality, greed, anger, filthy language, and lying that will bring the wrath of God against those who commit such awful deeds.  The command is clear here that as a reborn person in Christ, if you claim to put Christ first in your life, you will stop---literally put to death (they no longer exist in your life) these 11 bad characteristics.  These were part of your life without Christ, but are no longer to be part of your life.  Others must clearly see this in you or else you really have not truly repented of your former sinful life. 

Your new personality in Christ is described by 8 characteristics—as a Christ follower, you are to be compassionate, kind, humble, gentle, patience, lenient, easy-going and forgiving others, and be a role model of Christ-life love.  You might say that you cannot be like this, especially if you converted to Christ after many years of living an uncontrolled life, but you can with Christ’s help, help that you ask for everyday both proactively (asking for help as you start your day) and reactively (asking for forgiveness and help at the end of your day).     

The January 7, 2010 devotional from Our Daily Bread contained this quote from Phil Yancey, one of my favorite Christian authors--“Pleasing God doesn’t mean that we must busy ourselves with a new set of “spiritual” activities. As the Puritans said, whether cleaning house or preaching sermons, shoeing horses or translating the Bible, any human activity may constitute an offering to God.”  You do not need to worry about trying to concentrate on behaving as a Christian.  Simply by trusting in Christ, praying to Him daily, and saturating your mind with His Word, such as what is written here, you will be guided by Him and everything you do will be a service, an offering to God.