BIBLE READING: EPHESIANS 4:17-24
So I tell you this, and insist on it in the Lord, that you must no longer live as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their thinking. They are darkened in their understanding and separated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them due to the hardening of their hearts. Having lost all sensitivity, they have given themselves over to sensuality so as to indulge in every kind of impurity, and they are full of greed.

That, however, is not the way of life you learned when you heard about Christ and were taught in him in accordance with the truth that is in Jesus. 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.
REFLECTION
Today I’m going to focus on these verses from 22-24: ‘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.’

As Paul explores more of this invitation to live out the Christian faith he gives instructions as to how we might be people who live differently so that we don’t just believe something but that so what we believe is shown in our lives. As Paul develops that theme he talks about a taking off of the old self and the putting on of the new self. To be a Christian is to do that: to take off something and to put on something. To choose to put on the things of the Christian faith and to try and reject the things of our old life.

One of the things I love to do is cycle. If you’ve ever been out on a Sunday in Sheffield then you’ll have seen there’s a whole mass of cyclists – no doubt you’ve sat behind one in your car, wondering if you’ll ever get past them. When I go out cycling I get up in the morning and I put on my cycling gear. I put on my shorts, my top, my shoes, my glasses and my helmet and I go out to my bike. Sometimes I clean my bike and get the tyres ready and I try and make myself as much a cyclist as possible. What I do is I forget that the rest of the week I’m not actually a pro-cyclist; that the rest of my week is not actually spent in professional sport but spent doing other things. I try to put off the old self and put on a new self, the cycling self; the one who’s going to go out there and conquer the hills, almost as though I was Team Sky or part of the Tour de France. What I’m doing there is I’m choosing to put on the things I think a cyclist might do. When Paul talks about the Christian life he’s being realistic. He’s saying there’s something about the Christian life where we must choose what we do. We must choose to leave behind certain things and take on new things.

This is similar to when Jesus calls the disciples and says: repent, turn around and believe, take on something else. That’s what we’re doing in the Christian life. We’re leaving something behind. Maybe it’s an unforgiveness - an anger towards something. Maybe it’s the sin that keeps on trapping us. Maybe it’s a drinking thing. Whatever it is, we leave behind the old self. We say ‘that doesn’t belong to me now’ and we take on the new self. We put on the things of faith: righteousness and holiness. Righteousness is right standing with God and holiness is to be made complete again. What we do is we leave behind the old life and we put on a life where we stand right with God and where we are made complete in his holiness again.

So today the invitation is to put on the things of God. To take up the Christian faith, to wake up, to look at yourself in the mirror and to say to yourself today: what would it mean for me to follow Jesus throughout this day?
PRAY
Father we thank you that you call us t