Freedom During CaptivitySample

PUT ON THAT NEW COAT—IT HAS A BRAND NAME!

Do you tend to be more accountable if you have a list to go by? I know I do and in today's study, Paul gives us a list. He urges those in Christ to live a life worthy of the calling we have received. Here is a useful checklist to consider: 

• Be humble 
• Be gentle 
• Be patient, allowing for each other’s faults because of God’s love 
• Be united in the Spirit, binding yourself with others in peace 
• Be kind 
• Be tenderhearted 
• Be forgiving

Can you imagine how much better our world and even our rough times in life would be if we practiced Paul’s list daily?

CAN YOU RELATE?

If you’re anything like me, I find myself questioning my gifts. I wonder why some people have beautiful voices—and then there is me! I wonder why I am so drawn to the piano—yet I cannot play. Just like learning to receive salvation, we must learn to receive the gifts God chose for us to have. God knows best!

How can this chapter help those who feel downcast or who feel they have been in a valley way too long? Verses 7 and 8 tell us that each of us has been given a special gift through the grace of Christ! Are you using your gift or gifts? (some people have many). A lot of our valley issues can be helped by changing the way we think. 

Gifts were not given to each of us just for our benefit, however, if we use the gifts for the right reason, we can’t help but receive them as well!  

Paul names some of the gifts Christ gave to the Church: apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, and teachers. Perhaps we don’t fall under those titles, but if God gave you a beautiful voice or the gift of being able to play an instrument—that becomes your area of ministry! If you are mechanically inclined or are a great craftsman, this again is your area of ministry. The body of Christ has a myriad of needs and it doesn’t all have to happen within the walls of the church, for we are the body. You get the idea!

Paul states that if we use the gifts given to us for building up the body in unity, we won’t be tossed and blown about by every wind of new teaching that comes along. Verse 16 makes me think of the body of Christ as a jigsaw puzzle: each part is needed to complete the full picture and if one piece is missing, there is a huge hole left that becomes apparent to others. God makes the whole body fit together perfectly, as each part does its work. When the body suffers, it is usually because someone has gotten lazy with their gifts.

TAKE OFF THE OLD AND PUT ON YOUR NEW

Verses 12-32: Paul reminds us of how we behaved before we accepted Christ. We had on our old nature. Read these verses and then refer to one more checklist of questions below. If you find you are still living in your old nature, I challenge you to go before God and ask for His forgiveness. He will help you turn from your old ways.  Once we get rid of the old, we are given new strength that helps us in our very present time of trouble.

From time to time, does your mind wander to the old ways you once lived?  

• Does lust still rise-up in your body? 
• Are you speaking lies? Even little white lies? 
• Are you allowing anger to rise within you against another? 
• Is there something you have taken that is not your possession? 
• Are your words pleasing? 
• Are you able to forgive the one who has hurt you?

It is time to take off the old coat (old nature) and put on the brand new one that was purchased just for us—and it was given a brand name by Jesus! We should be wearing this new coat daily, for it is filled with power, with love, and with strength!  

When we wear the new coat, it becomes our protection against our old ways. It becomes our righteousness before God, and it becomes a witness—the beacon of light, that the world needs!  When we face unwanted things in life, it is really important to wear that new coat and now and then it is okay to let others know the brand name! 

WHAT WE LEARNED TODAY FOR LIFE’S JOURNEY:  

• There is only one God. 
• Use and accept the gifts you have been given. 
• Take off the old and wear the new, for it is full of power and love and strength!