The day after you’re baptized you will look at the choices you have to make in a completely different light. You’re no longer just one of the guys because you have entered into a relationship with Jesus who is not only your Savior, but has now become your Lord. The impact of the statement: “If any man is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold new things have come” (2 Corinthians 5:17) hits home. You have set out in a new direction and have a new perspective on life.
One of the consequences of becoming a Christian, Paul tells us, is that “since you laid aside the old self with its evil practices, and have put on the new self” you need to put out of our life things like “immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire … greed … anger, wrath, malice, slander … abusive speech,” and lying (Colossians 3:5-9). Most of my gentle readers will already have removed these attitudes and activities from their lives, but there may be some item in the list that still needs your attention.
As
a Christian you must do away with old spiritual distinctions and realize that in
Christ everyone is, spiritually,
a “new creature” (Galatians 6:15). This is difficult because it means that your
former religious convictions may no longer be valid. Look at the example of the
Judaizers in the province of Galatia who found it hard to accept that, in
Christianity, “neither is circumcision anything, nor uncircumcision” because
they had been brought up to divide the world into these two classes. They had to
give up the Law they formerly kept so rigorously, and on the basis of which they
judged others as unworthy. The conclusion to which we are drawn as Christians
is, however, that we are part of that group in which everyone is reconciled “in
one body to God through the cross” (Ephesians 2:15-16).
Old social divisions have no place in our Christian lives because we have “put on the new self who is being renewed to a true knowledge according to the image of the One who created him—a renewal in which there is no distinction between Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave and freeman, but Christ is all and in all” (Colossians 3:9-11). Difficult though it may be, we must rid ourselves of all our former prejudices against others because we are all the creation of God and share the same spiritual outlook and future in Christ.
Above all, as a Christian you are to “put on the new self, which in the likeness of God has been created in righteousness and holiness of the truth” (Ephesians 4:24). These foundation characteristics—righteousness, holiness, and truth—are to become your guiding principles. Do all that is right in the sight of God in order to be righteous; be committed solely to Him in order to be holy; and follow the truth which His word reveals.