Get Connected with New Clothes

Since I was diagnosed to be diabetic in September 2007, I ?ve had to watch what I eat. As a result, some of my clothes are becoming so baggy that I will need to replace them soon. (As a side note, thanks to everyone for the encouragement along the way ?keep it up!) Oddly enough, as thrilled as I am with the weight loss, I have been hesitant to purchase new clothes. I think it ?s because I ?ve lost weight before, and I ?m afraid that I ?ll bounce back to where I was.

It ?s the same thing with sin. We ?ve become so accustomed to the ?weight ? of the sins in our lives and the habits of living with those sins that we hesitate to get rid of them. Even when we decide to follow Jesus and allow him to forgive our sins and give us new selves, we hesitate to get rid of the old ways because we ?ve bounced back there before.

In Ephesians 4:22-24, Paul wrote: ?You were taught, with regard to your former way of life, to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires; to be made new in the attitude of your minds; and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness. ? Paul says that we need to discard the old self, but then, we knew that, right? The hard part is in the word translated ?put on, ? which literally means to sink into. Some uses of the word translate it as ?invest. ? In a sense, Paul is telling us to invest in some new clothes, to sink into our new selves as if into a new set of clothes.

Verse 25 says to put off falsehood and put on truth because we are the members of one body. The rest of chapter 4 talks about different sinful habits to get rid of and what to put on to replace them. Ultimately, we all have the same problem ?can we call it ?sin handles ?but because we are members of one body, we need to work on losing the weight of sin together. Get rid of the old self; you ?re not going back because you ?ve got new clothes ?and spiritual workout buddies as well!