Introduction
– Will the real You please stand?
As believers we tend to
compartmentalize life into various categories…”how is your prayer life?”; “How
about your ‘Word Level’?” These presumably constitute the sum total of our
‘spiritual life’; not forgetting our ‘Praise and Worship life’. Yet there is
only ONE life lived…the same life we live in prayer is the same as the one we
live in lying or behaving ourselves unseemingly.
James 3: 8-13 But the tongue
can no man tame; it is an unruly evil, full of deadly poison.
9 Therewith bless we God,
even the Father; and therewith curse we men, which are made after the
similitude of God.
10 Out of the same mouth
proceedeth blessing and cursing. My brethren, these things ought not so to
be.
11 Doth a fountain send
forth at the same place sweet water and bitter?
12 Can the fig tree, my
brethren, bear olive berries? either a vine, figs? so can no fountain both
yield salt water and fresh.
13 Who is a wise man and
endued with knowledge among you? let him shew out of a good conversation his
works with meekness of wisdom.
We do the same with the
various ‘fronts’ we present to the various people we relate with…in church we
are different in our demeanour and behaviour from how we really are at home;
likewise we put on a professional mask at work that disappears when we get
home.
We are a different person to
DIFFERENT people. We have a compulsive need to cover our NAKEDNESS because what
we hide underneath is not as pleasant as what we choose to reveal to others, sometimes
even to those who are intimate with us.
It is for this reason
perhaps, that the bible says the heart of man is desperately wicked, who can
know it?
Adam covered his NAKEDNESS
from God because he should NOT have known he was naked! His eyes had been
opened through disobedience and thus he was no longer innocent.
We hide our NAKEDNESS from
Man because we know the SELF that we are trying to cover up has no good thing
in it…it is FLESH.
Yet to expose our nakedness
is simply to expose SELF…this is what the bible terms PUTTING OFF SELF so that
the real NEW MAN inside can be seen:
Eph 4:17-25 This I say
therefore, and testify in the Lord, that ye henceforth walk not as other
Gentiles walk, in the vanity of their mind,
18 Having the understanding
darkened, being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in
them, because of the blindness of their heart:
19 Who being past feeling
have given themselves over unto lasciviousness, to work all uncleanness with
greediness.
20 But ye have not so
learned Christ;
21 IF SO BE THAT YE HAVE
HEARD HIM, AND HAVE BEEN TAUGHT BY HIM as the truth is in Jesus: (hearing the Lord and being taught by Him is
personal).
22 That ye PUT OFF
concerning the former conversation the old man, which is corrupt according to
the deceitful lusts;
23 And be renewed in the
spirit of your mind;
24 And that ye put on the
new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness.
25 Wherefore PUTTING AWAY lying, speak every
man truth with his neighbour: for we are members one of another.
The word CONVERSATION in
verse 22 refers not merely to dialogue, but in particular to THE WAY AND MANNER
OF LIVING.
For example, to PUT OFF lying is one way to PUT OFF the Old
Man, but clearly Paul is not merely referring to lying with words even though
he referenced speaking truth with your neighbour; no, he is talking about
putting off the Old Man concerning his former way of living.
ONLY THEN can one PUT ON the
New Man, for it is not possible to put on both MEN at the same time.
The hallmarks noticed in
those who have put on the New Man are righteousness and TRUE holiness.
We live as though we are
several kinds of ONE person…to our family we are strict, harsh and unpleasant…to
our brethren we are kind, meek and humble…to our office staff we are
overbearing and rude…yet we are ONE and the SAME person.
It is because we have not
understood that the same life we present to brethren is the same life we present
to our families and colleagues at work. SO WILL THE REAL YOU PLEASE STAND?
This evidently is not the New
Man, for if it were, he would present the SAME ‘front’ to EVERYONE. He will
come out PLAINLY with all his flaws. He will show that he is no spiritual giant
but rather, one who is working out his own salvation with fear and trembling.
Paul said he had not yet ‘arrived’…
Phil 3:13 -14 Brethren, I
count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting those
things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before,
14 I press toward the mark for the prize of the
high calling of God in Christ Jesus.
He was no spiritual giant…but
he certainly didn’t hide anything…he didn’t hide who he really was…he was an
OPEN book to be read by all…this idea of putting on different masks for
different people is the greatest way Self hides itself and its works from the
sight of men…we need to relearn again how to be plain…to walk in the
transparency of our heart is not merely to tell the truth with our lips but
also with our WALK.
When the New Man is PUT ON,
he will expose the works of the Old Man, so that the Old Man may die
experientially…the New Man will strive to live like Christ lived and though he
may stumble and fall several times, ALL will see his TRUE nature in spite of
his many weaknesses.
Watch out for this series
coming soon…
