Good morning. Paul,
talking about those people we were discussing yesterday: having become callous.
How do you get a callous – by something repeatedly rubbing on some part of your
body. They repeatedly ignored God's warning, and it developed a callous on
their heart and conscience, so that they no longer even notice God's warning.
As far as our former manner of life is concerned – we are to lay aside the old
self, which is being corrupted in accordance with the lusts of deceit. He is
dead and buried. We should not be dragging our old self around. Next we have to
be renewed in the spirit of our mind. We have to get rid of our stinking
thinking. Then we are to put on the new self, which in the likeness of God has
been created in righteousness and holiness of the truth. The new "us"
does not want to act like the old self did. Since the new self is in the
likeness of God, we should be acting like God. We are to lay aside falsehood
and speak truth with our neighbor. Then a verse which is hard to obey when you
have teenagers: be angry, and yet do not sin; do not let the sun go down on
your anger. I know they are not real life, but how many TV shows or movies have
you seen in which either a parent or a child decides to change the way things
have been. They make overtures to the other one to set things right, but don't
tell them that that is what they are doing. The other person, remembering how
things were, reacts negatively, thinking that it is the same old same old. The
person trying to make the overtures then says "forget it!". Many
times teenagers, five minutes after they "act out", have forgotten
that it even happened. They don't realize that parents are reacting to what
they just did. To them it is a brand-new slate. They are confused about why
their parents are angry at them. And so they react to the parents' anger – and
so on and so on. It's hard to do but we are to "bear no grudges". Father
thank You that the reader has put on the new self and is walking in
righteousness and holiness of the truth.
Therefore I exhort you, be imitators of me
Good morning. Paul then gives a list of a lot of things that he has gone through as an apostle. I do not write these things to shame you, but to admonish you as my beloved children. For if you were to have countless tutors in Christ, yet you would not have many fathers, for in Christ Jesus I became your father through the gospel. There could be many people that you listen to either in church or through the Internet or other means; but there was only one person (as a general rule it was a person) that lead you to Christ. Therefore I exhort you, be imitators of me. He was saying that just like a child imitates his or her father, they were to imitate him. He says that again seven chapters later. Since it is easy to forget some things about people we have not seen in a while, Paul says that he sent Timothy to them to remind them of his ways which are in Christ, just as he taught everywhere in every church. Some have become arrogant, as though I were not coming to you. I shall find ou...
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