Ephesians 4:22–25
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.
To become new men means losing what we now
call "ourselves." Out of ourselves, into Christ, we must go. His will
is to become ours and we are to think His thoughts, to "have the mind of
Christ" as the Bible says. And if Christ is one, and if He is thus to be
"in" us all, shall we not be exactly the same? It certainly sounds
like it; but in fact it is not so. It is difficult here to get a good
illustration; because, of course, no other two things are related to each other
just as the Creator is related to one of His creatures. But I will try two very
imperfect illustrations which may give a hint of the truth. Imagine a lot of
people who have always lived in the dark. You come and try to describe to them
what light is like. You might tell them that if they come into the light that
same light would fall on them all and they would all reflect it and thus become
what we call visible. Is it not quite possible that they would imagine that,
since they were all receiving the same light, and all reacting to it in the
same way (i.e., all reflecting it), they would all look alike?
Whereas you and I know that the light will in
fact bring out, or show up, how different they are. Or again, suppose a person
who knew nothing about salt. You give him a pinch to taste and he experiences a
particular strong, sharp taste. You then tell him that in your country people
use salt in all their cookery. Might he not reply "In that case I suppose
all your dishes taste exactly the same: because the taste of that stuff you
have just given me is so strong that it will kill the taste of everything
else." But you and I know that the real effect of salt is exactly the
opposite. So far from killing the taste of the egg and the tripe and the
cabbage, it actually brings it out. They do not show their real taste till you
have added the salt.
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