Tag: God

Living Sacrifice Day 30 – The Myth of Clergy and Laity

Justin Hibbard


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Begin by reading Colossians 1:1-14

A friend of mine who is a Pastor carries a special card in his wallet. It is a card given by a Major League Baseball organization that allows him entrance into their ballpark for free. It’s a clergy pass. I imagine the light bulb just went off in your head, and now you’re wondering how you can get one of those too. Well, I’ve got good news for you, but if you’re like I was, this news may shock you. Ready? There’s no Biblical basis for a distinction of clergy and laity among Christians. In other words, the Bible does not teach that there’s a special class of Christians that enter the clergy and the rest are the laity. So, go ahead and apply for your cards!

Well, if the Bible doesn’t teach this, where did this idea come from? Well, it’s a long story, but it began in the early church. There is evidence in post-apostolic writings, beginning with Clement I, of teachers making a distinction between the qualified and the unqualified. The qualified became known as the clergy and the general population of Christians became known as the laity. By the 300s, this idea was taught and practiced in churches, and today, we can see how that has developed. In the Catholic Church, there is a very distinct hierarchy, and to become part of that, you have to make some very intense vows. And if you aren’t willing or “called” to do that, then you are, by default, part of the laity. However, this idea is still in place in many Protestant churches as well, where there is a distinction between the called and the unqualified, the pulpiters and the pewsitters.

So, what does the Bible teach? The Greek word for laity is the word laos. Whenever that word is used in the New Testament, it is used to refer to the entire Church. Because it is a word often associated in ancient Greek with a nation of people, this would have been revolutionary to the Jewish converts to Christianity. Whereas, the people of Israel were a laos or nation in and of themselves, now this term was being used to cross borders and ethnicities, bridging the gap between Jews and Gentiles, giving a unified identity through the Person of Christ. The word laos or laity is never used in Scripture, as we often hear it used today – to talk about a general population of Christians who are not called to an elite league of ministers.

Likewise, the word Clergy is never used in Scripture to reference an elite group with a special calling. This word comes from the Greek word kleros, which means a share or portion. It is used in Colossians 1:12 when Paul says, “the Father has qualified you to share in the inheritance of his holy people.” This share of ministry is something that God entrusts to every Believer. While the Bible talks about the importance of training and discipling, it does not suggest that only those with a certain level of education can obtain a kleros. While the Bible does talk about specific offices and leadership in the church, it does not identify two separate classes of Christians. As Paul states in 1 Corinthians 12:25, “There should be no division in the body.”

Today, we use the word clergy to designate those who are employed by a church, recognized on a pastoral staff, or we may even go so far as to say that missionaries fall under this classification. But I believe there is harm in making this distinction. Over time, we can see what has happened. As we have emphasized the elite and special calling of the pastor, the general congregation has lost its sense that they are equally called, equally qualified, and equally responsible to exercise their gifts in the church. Instead, it becomes easy for us to say, “we pay the pastor to do the ministry,” and pass the buck on him. Likewise, many churches have pastors who want to take control, using the “clergy card” as a way of lording over the people.

I feel both extremes sadden the Lord greatly. Romans 12, 1 Corinthians 12, Colossians 1, and other passages never speak of such an attitude as one the church should have. Instead, we are encouraged to see the church as a body working together, each part equally important and necessary. And who’s the head? It’s not the pastor, or the main teacher, or the patriarch who sits on the elder’s board. No, it’s Christ and Christ alone.

Being a living sacrifice compels us to understand this important point and to fight off hundreds of years of tradition that I believe violates some vital Biblical points. We are the laos – the people of God. As Peter points out, “We are a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s chosen people.” We, by God’s grace, have been entrusted with a portion of ministry. It’s not my ministry. It’s not your ministry. It’s God’s ministry.

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Living Sacrifice Day 29 – Adorned with the Gift of God

Justin Hibbard


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Begin by reading Matthew 25:14-30

As most engagements go, my cousin bought a ring for his fiance and asked her to be his wife. Later, gathered as a family, we asked them about the proposal, and they shared with us the details. When we asked her about the ring, she laughed. “Oh, it’s so ugly!” she exclaimed. “I don’t even wear it.” She turned to my cousin. “What were you thinking when you bought me that hideous ring?”

Ouch! I couldn’t imagine my wife saying that about the ring I gave her when I proposed. It was custom made with every penny I owned (which really wasn’t much at all). I had dipped into the savings account I had started as a little kid and gave it to her as a humble offering and token of my love. It makes me so happy that she wears that ring with pride. She confirms and esteems me by adorning herself with that humble gift.

God has given you spiritual gifts. He has poured grace and mercy out on you. When we put down, deny, or bury our gifts, we, in a sense, do what my cousin’s wife did. But when we accept God’s gifts and use them, we are honoring our Lord.

As we have talked about during the past couple of days, there is a difference between humility and low self-esteem. Putting yourself down, whether verbally or in your thinking, undermines the grandeur of God and His ability to make something out of your life. Remember, we can do all things through Christ who gives us strength. When we fail to realize that, we place ourselves above and before God. We make ourselves bigger than God, and thus we become our own idols and are displaying an attitude of pride.

The Parable of the Talents in today’s reading gives us insight to help us have the right attitude. All these three men were given gifts. They couldn’t say, “Look at me,” because what they were given was a gift or a loan. The first two had a right to be pleased with their work, only inasmuch as their Master was pleased. Of this point, C.S. Lewis notes in Mere Christianity, “Pleasure in being praised is not Pride. The child who is patted on the back for doing a lesson well, the woman whose beauty is praised by her lover, the saved soul to whom Christ says ‘Well done,’ are pleased and ought to be. For here the pleasure lies not in what you are but in the fact that you have pleased someone you wanted (and rightly wanted) to please. The trouble begins when you pass from thinking, ‘I have pleased him; all is well,’ to thinking, ‘What a fine person I must be to have done it.’ The more you delight in yourself and the less you delight in the praise, the worse you delight in the praise, the worse you are becoming.”

In utilizing our gifts, let’s remember these points. First, we are Living Sacrifices; our purpose is to be a pleasurable fragrance to the Lord. Secondly, we are using our gifts to please our Master. Thirdly, when we use our gifts, we honor God because it is really God’s amazing grace that is on display. And lastly, when we use the gifts God has entrusted us with, we can expect to be given a greater measure, just as the faithful servants were given.

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Living Sacrifice Day 28 – Three Gifts

Justin Hibbard


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Begin by reading 1 Corinthians 12:1-11

Playing sports, my father always gave us incentives to do well. Score a goal, and it was a $5 reward. Score another, and it meant $10 on top of the previous $5. If we scored a hat-trick, he gave us $15 more. Three goals earned us $30. I think if I had understood the value of money, I would have tried a lot harder to get those three goals.

Depending on your job, you may have experienced merit or incentive pay. First, you may have received a salary based on your experience, education, and expertise. Then, you may be set up to receive bonuses or incentives based on how well you do the job. At the end of the year when you get that raise, you can pat yourself on the back for how well you did. The paycheck proves it.

Unfortunately, or perhaps fortunately, this is very different than how God works. We are told in Romans 12:3-6 that we have been given three gifts. First, we know that we have been given spiritual gifts. These gifts are outlined for us in today’s reading. In 1 Corinthians 12:4-6, we are told three times that it is the Lord who gives us gifts. These are not our personal abilities based on our experience and expertise, these are gifts from the Lord.

How are these gifts distributed? Are they given to you based on your good looks or your height? Nope. They are given in accordance to grace. What is grace? Ephesians 2:7-8 tells us that grace is a gift. It’s not based on who you are or what you’ve accomplished in the past; it’s a gift. So, we’re given a gift based on a gift.

And lest we should boast, Paul tells us to think soberly about ourselves in accordance to the measure of faith given to us. What is faith? Faith is also a gift. When Peter declares that Jesus is the Messiah in Matthew 16, Jesus says, “Blessed are you Peter, because the Father has revealed this to you.” Not only is grace a gift but so is faith. Basically, Paul is telling us that we’ve received a gift, based on a gift, in a measure that’s also a gift.

So before you boast about what it is you can do, remember, it’s all a gift. There’s really nothing about you to boast about. Secondly, because we’ve been given not just one gift but a whole bunch of them, spend some time today thanking God for what He is doing through you.

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Living Sacrifice Day 27 – Humility: Not Pride, Not Low Self-Esteem

Justin Hibbard


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Begin by reading 1 Corinthians 9

Paul tells us in Romans 12:3 that we ought to have sober judgment about ourselves. When I think of that word sober, I immediately think of alcohol. My brother, who is involved in law enforcement, often talks about people getting arrested because they had a little too much “liquid courage.” You may have heard that phrase before. Sometimes people drink, get out of control, and start thinking they can do all sorts of things. Often times they wake up with a cold dose of reality that includes a hangover and a prison cell.

In this passage, Paul isn’t talking about alcohol so to speak, but he is telling us to be realistic about ourselves. He is instructing us to be sober minded, not to think we can do everything, but to be humble and realistic.

Humility is something we hear often as Believers, but I think we struggle at practicing it correctly. It’s difficult for us to accept praise from people, because we don’t want to be prideful, or appear prideful, or risk letting praise go to our heads. If you’re like me, when someone tells you that you did a nice job (especially when it comes to a work for the church), it makes you feel slightly uncomfortable. How should we respond? Should we say something like, “It’s not me; it’s the Lord?” Or maybe we should pretend like they didn’t say anything? Maybe we ought to just say “thank you?”

So often, we’re so afraid of appearing prideful that we take the other route. We put ourselves down. When someone says, “You have the gift; I think you would be great at it.” We may respond by saying, “No, I can’t do anything.” This is called false-humility. It’s not being humble; it’s putting yourself down in order to not appear prideful. Ken Blanchard explains, “Humility is not thinking less of yourself. Humility is thinking of yourself less.”

In today’s reading we see a confident Paul. I know some people find Paul to be arrogant, and what he tells the Church at Corinth may be fuel for that fire. He basically says, “I have seen Jesus. I know what He’s called me to do. And you are the fruit of my labor which confirms that calling.” That’s a pretty brazen statement to make. But while some call this arrogance, I call it confidence. Paul understood what his gifts were (and what they were not), and he was determined to use those gifts – not for the praise of man, but to glorify God. If we met a person like Paul in our office, we might say he was passionate and driven to excel at the tasks given him.

We can take a cue from Paul regarding what it means to soberly judge ourselves. We have to understand both the gifts God has given us as well as our limitations. Then we are to work not for the praises of men but to glorify our Father who is in heaven. The purpose of our service is not to impress others but to be a living sacrifice for the Lord.

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Living Sacrifice Day 26 – The One Essential to Unity in Worship

Justin Hibbard


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Begin by reading Ephesians 4

Our church, New Hope Chapel is an interesting collection of people. From Charismatic to Presbyterian to Baptist to former Catholic, our spiritual backgrounds run the gamut. How can such a diverse body of believers hope to achieve any kind of unity in corporate worship?

The world would tell us that the answer will come in “embracing diversity.” Rather than bemoan the theological and stylistic differences that exist between us, we should celebrate them. There is one problem with this idea. The focus is all wrong. When we direct our attention away from the Head of this body to the individuals in fellowship, we are actually moving in the opposite direction of where we wish to head. Turning our eyes away from God and onto each other is a recipe for unity disaster.

So what is the answer?

A.W. Tozer points out that one hundred pianos all tuned to the same tuning fork are automatically tuned to each other. They are of one accord, not by being tuned to each other, but by being tuned to another standard outside of themselves.

As each of us sets our mind on Christ, we will be inevitably drawn together in heart. Paul begins Romans 12 encouraging a very personal commitment to God. Like he does in Ephesians 4, Paul urges us to offer ourselves as individual living sacrifices, renewing our minds in order to be transformed. Why the stress on individual commitment to God in a chapter dedicated to the church operating as a unified body? When each member devotes themselves to the same cause, unity is inevitable.

The political unrest in the Middle East has topped the news headlines lately. Government heads, in power for decades, have been forced to resign after massive citizen protests. Heads of opposing tribes and divergent religious factions set aside their differences and encouraged their people to unite in the interest of a common goal. And the effectiveness of their determination is seen in the toppling of several powerful regimes in recent days.

Our church will be a unified body when one by one we set aside our own agendas and focus our gaze on our Savior. As Hebrews 12:2 tells us, “Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith.” Unity in worship is a by-product of individuals committed to walking with our Lord.

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Living Sacrifice Day 25 – The Dual Responsibility of a Believer

Justin Hibbard


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Begin by reading John 17

Romans 12:1-8 is one of those power packed passages. We’ve spent 24 days analyzing it, and we’ve only gotten through the first two verses. If we step back for a minute, we see that there are essentially two parts to this passage of Scripture. It may help that your Bible divides them with a paragraph and maybe a heading as well.

Romans 12:1-2 talks about our personal responsibility as a Christian. Being a 24/7 worshiper, a living sacrifice is something that primarily you will do when no one else is around. It is about integrity and a personal walk with God. And because you are a Believer and have the blood of Christ over you, you are a member of an invisible church, made up of Believers from the past, the present, the future – from the Americas to the far ends of the earth.

The second part of this passage, verses 3-8 deals with our responsibility as a member of the body of Christ. As we’ll see in the upcoming weeks, Paul is talking about how we are to work together with other Believers to use our gifts to serve the Lord. If verses 1-2 talk about our personal responsibility as a member of the invisible church, then verses 3-8 deal with our personal responsibility as a member of the visible church.

Have you ever heard someone say, “I don’t have to go to church to be a Christian?” Maybe you’ve heard the statement, “Going to church makes you as much of a Christian as going to McDonald’s makes you a hamburger.” Both statements are equally true. There are many Christians who are members of the invisible church but are not part of a visible church. On the other hand, there are people who are involved with the visible church but aren’t members of the invisible church.

Both are important. While God relates with us individually, He is also the Father of a family and will relate to a collective group of Believers. When Jesus poured out His heart in the Garden of Gethsemane, He prayed for the unity of His children – His disciples. I have three young children, and when I think about them growing up, I hope that they have a close relationship with each other. No father wants to see his children grow apart let alone bicker and argue their whole lives.

Since our Father relates with us all on a personal level, in a sense, the closer we draw to each other, the greater we realize our Father is. Because of our sin and human limitations, we cannot experience everything God has to offer. Someone may experience God as a healer. Someone else may have experienced God as one who forgives the most dismal of past sins. Someone else may experience God speaking to them about a future event. If we don’t share our experiences together, we will tend to see God only as He pertains to us in our limited view. There are always others around us who know more about God, have a stronger relationship with Him, or have had different experiences with our Heavenly Father. When we spend time with each other, we experience God in new and perhaps different ways. We begin to see more of Him.

Our dual responsibility as Believers is to grow personally in our walks with God. Then, we are to share that relationship with other people. We are to encourage our brothers and sisters by telling and exemplifying what God is doing in our lives, and we are to learn and share in their experiences and personal encounters with our Father – the Creator of the world.

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Living Sacrifice Day 24 – The Desires of Your Heart

Justin Hibbard


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Begin by reading Matthew 6:19-7:13

Have you ever seen a child throw a temper-tantrum when they didn’t get their way? Have you ever heard someone say, “if you love me, then you would…?” Being human beings, we often associate love with getting what we want. Good news. Jesus tells us that He wants to give us the desires of our heart.

But there’s a catch. Jesus isn’t just throwing Himself at us like some sort of Santa Claus. He wants to give us the desires of our heart, but the catch is that He wants the desires of our heart to be in line with the desires of His heart.

Yes, He does say, “ask and it shall be given to you, seek and ye shall find.” But what else ought we to be seeking? Well, in the Sermon on the Mount that served as today’s reading, before Jesus tells us that He’s going to give us what we seek, He tells us to seek first the Kingdom of God. He explains that “where our treasure is there our heart will be also.” The heart, as Jesus goes onto explain, is the source of our entire selves. All of our thoughts, desires, and actions stem from there. If our heart is in line with God, then everything will fall into place as well. But if our heart isn’t in the right place, then we’re going to treat God like a genie and feed Him our wish list.

The point our Rabbi is making is the Lord is looking to bless people that are seeking after Him. He’s not a reckless God who’s going to give us anything and everything we want just because we want it. If we’re not in line with Him, chances are we’re going to be asking for material possessions and for all the wrong reasons. No, He wants to give us what He wants. But first He wants us to want it.

God knows that we will never have second-thoughts if we follow Him. No one who has tasted the true glory and goodness of God and walked in step with the Master has ever said, “I wish I hadn’t done that.” But on the other hand, we have had plenty of occasions where we’ve gone our own way and now live with those regrets.

God is a gentleman. He doesn’t want to force His desires on our hearts, and so He is patient. He waits for us to want to follow Him, to taste and see that He and His will are good. It reminds me of a story I heard recently about a very successful businessman who wanted his son to follow in his footsteps and eventually take over. The son at first had no desire, and so the father did not press the issue any further. But when the son realized how successful and wise his father was, he began to work with him, spend time with him. The more he got to see the business side of his father, the more he understood why he was so successful. The more he experienced the life his father wanted to give to him, the more he desired to live that life and take on that career.

At first, we may stand on the outside and think God’s ways are boring or not fulfilling. But walk with Him for a while, and watch your heart change. Watch yourself be transformed to the likeness of Your Father. That’s when you begin to see His will, and that is when you’ll see how good, pleasing, and perfect of a will it is.

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Living Sacrifice Day 23 – Knowing the Will of God

Justin Hibbard


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Begin by reading John 4:4-26

I remember back to my senior year of high school, as I prepared to go to college. I struggled with trying to figure out where God wanted me to go to school and what major he wanted me to have. I thought it was the biggest decision of my life, and I desperately needed to hear the audible voice of the Lord.

We all want to know the will of God. Like the GPS system that sits on our dashboard, we want God to give us turn-by-turn directions. Sometimes He makes it pretty clear for us; sometimes He doesn’t. But the beginning place to knowing the will of God is actually revealed to us in today’s reading.

Once again we find ourselves looking at the story of the conversation between Jesus and the Samaritan woman at the well. In this story, we find a woman trying to strike up conversation with Jesus about the differences between Jews and Samaritans and where they worshiped. But Jesus wasn’t interested in talking about that; He wanted to get at the heart of the matter. He wanted to examine her heart. The fact is, she was living in sin. She was a woman who had been married five times and was living with someone who wasn’t her husband. Most likely her reputation proceeded her, which is probably why she was drawing water at a time when no one else would be at the well. She wanted to avoid everyone, and they most likely didn’t want anything to do with her.

What does this story have to do with knowing the will of God? The answer is that knowing the will of God begins with obedience. We will not recognize the Lord’s voice if we are tangled up in sin. If you’re fooling around with someone who isn’t your spouse, don’t think that you’ll be able to hear the Lord giving direction on how to lead your family. Obedience is the key first step. In a sense, Jesus is saying, “Forget about where you worship. God desires people who worship in spirit and truth. Let’s begin with the problem of sin that’s paralyzing your heart.” This was a message from the Lord that we hear in Jeremiah 29:13 and Matthew 15:8, “these are people who honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me; they worship Me in vain.”

The Lord is personal. Often times we forget that His relationship is, in a sense, no different than a relationship with a friend. If we want to know what our friend is saying, we need to spend time with them. If we’re hurting them in some way, we’re going to avoid getting closer in our friendship. If we’re holding a grudge against them, we’re not going to want to hear what they have to say. Likewise, our friend probably isn’t going to reveal their secrets to us because we haven’t earned their trust.

Do you want to know the will of God? Is there something in your life where you are anxious to hear from Him? Maybe it’s a big decision and you’re not sure what to do. Maybe He’s silent because He’s waiting for you to draw closer. Don’t just seek Him with your lips. Seek Him with your heart.

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Living Sacrifice Day 22 – A Fresh Start

Justin Hibbard


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Begin by reading Hebrews 12:1-13

Being in the IT field, I’ve had people bring their PCs loaded with their problems to me for help. However, the problem I hate dealing with the most is a computer infected with a virus. Having similar experiences myself (before I converted to Mac), it can be the most annoying and difficult problem. Why? Well, depending on the virus, it can really affect the machine. It can cause it to do things involuntarily, keep it from connecting online to prevent you from solving the problem, it can slow down your computer to a crawl, and in general, it just makes your life miserable. Because viruses come out all the time, the anti-virus programs struggle to keep up with them. So, to solve the problem, you first have to find the virus and then hope the anti-virus is up-to-date enough to kill the problem. But depending on the virus, it can be tricky and could take hours to try to figure out if you’ve gotten everything. So, what’s the best solution? The best solution is to reinstall Windows and give your computer a fresh start. As annoying is it is to back up everything, reinstall the operating system, and reload all the programs, it’s amazing at how quickly the computer will run. I’ve had people tell me, “it’s like you gave me a brand new computer.”

This is a good analogy for our lives as Christians. Even in our redeemed state, we are always susceptible to the virus of sin. It can so easily creep into our hearts and cause our whole selves to malfunction. Once sin is in our hearts, our actions can follow suit. What’s inside eventually comes out. No matter how hard you try, sin just doesn’t stay bottled up.

In Romans 12:2, Paul tells us to be different, to renew our minds. Sometimes, we need a fresh start. If we’re really struggling with a particular sin, sometimes we need to get away. That getting away may be in the form of repentance; prayer, meditation, or fasting; encouragement from other believers; or perhaps counseling. We, in a sense, need to be rebooted. When God redeems us, He makes us a new creation. But until we reach heaven, we’re always going to be struggling with the temptations of sin.

In my job, I’m constantly telling people how viruses and spyware work and how to avoid them. “Be careful with what sites online you visit,” I explain. “And when something pops-up, don’t just click on it. In fact sometimes the button that says ‘close’ is a button that will deploy the spyware.” A lot of times, this helps the user from making the same mistake again.

Similarly, Paul tells us to rethink about ourselves. Because when we see ourselves as God’s redeemed, we begin to recognize the traps that Satan uses. We start seeing the places where we are susceptible to his snarls and start to avoid them. I think we will be shocked at what God can do through a creature who is committed to being a living sacrifice. When we’re not slowed down by the viruses of sin, we can run the race marked out for us.

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Living Sacrifice Day 21 – Free Your Mind

Justin Hibbard


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Begin by reading Philippians 2:1-16

The Matrix, one of my all-time favorite movies, is about a world within a world known as the Matrix. While the Matrix exists, few people know about it and are simply satisfied with living in the outer world in ignorance. The movie is about a man named Neo, who is invited to see and live inside the Matrix. The rules of the Matrix are different, but he struggles with being confined by the rules of the world he was so used to. Neo’s trainer Morpheus challenges him to stop thinking like a human being and instead tells him to “free your mind.” As the movie progresses, we are dazzled by Neo’s ability, combined with neat special effects, to defy laws of gravity, run up walls, and do all sorts of super-human moves that defy the limits of a human being.

The Matrix has a number of obvious parallels to Christianity, and Neo’s transformation into a new creature inside the Matrix is one of them. Paul tells us, Do not be conformed any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.” Why does the transformation happen by the renewing of your mind?

Here’s why. We’re used to acting a certain way because we’re used to thinking a certain way. When we were an unbeliever we didn’t give credence to God, His divinity, and our place in the Kingdom. If you recall, the first challenge was on getting to know God, and the second challenge was to know our place in His Kingdom. Like Neo, we have to relearn how to act based on our new identity.

There’s a non-smoking commercial campaign airing that depicts people struggling with quitting to smoke. They are so used to lighting up when getting in the car or drinking a cup of coffee, that they struggle to do those activities without a smoke. The point of the commercial is to relearn how to do the other activities like driving and drinking coffee without the crutch of a cigarette.

Being a Believer is similar. We may be used to using bad language, losing our temper, or thinking lustful thoughts. These can be difficult habits to break. Paul is telling us that in order to break these habits we must renew our minds – rethink about who we are and why we exist. This is not easy. If we have lived years losing our temper when things don’t go our way, we have to stop and think about the Lord and who we are as soon as we’re faced with something troubling. If we’re used to thinking a lustful thought every time we see a coworker, then we need to retrain ourselves to honor God with our thoughts.

However, if we can at every moment say, “I exist to glorify God,” then when the temptation arises to revert back to sinful habits, we are more likely to fight it. This isn’t a self-help regiment. This is living up to a standard, up to an identity – we are emulating our Lord Jesus.

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