Last week as I was getting ready to go for a run, I realized that my running shoes were in my wife vehicle. So I put on a different pair of shoes. Any runner knows not all shoes are created equal. I ran less than normal and slower than normal but hurt way more. I put on the WRONG shoes and I paid for it.
Colossians 3:10 Put on your new nature, and be renewed as you learn to know your Creator and become like him. 11 In this new life, it doesn’t matter if you are a Jew or a Gentile, circumcised or uncircumcised, barbaric, uncivilized, slave, or free. Christ is all that matters, and he lives in all of us.
Paul is writing this letter to believers. He is encouraging them to put on their new nature. I am not trying to sound like a teacher today… But Paul is saying it is possible to be a believer and not put on your new nature. Being a believer and not putting on the new nature is like being a runner and putting on the wrong shoes. You get half as far and takes way longer… and wow does it hurt. So then comes the question what is this new nature?
The next part of the verse encourages us to “learn to know the Creator.” That is some phrase. Do you know the Creator? Not like do you know Donald Trump. Most of us have never met the president. Do you know your best friend? Knowing and knowing about are very different. Here we are encouraged to know the Creator and out of knowing Him we become like Him. When we become like Him we are putting on our new nature.
So what nature do you put on? Do you put on your old nature that prefers yourself, stays stuck in your sin, and does not reflect the nature of the Creator? Of do you put on that new nature that is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, gentleness, and self control?
So what are you going to do today? Do you need to spend time with the Creator, learning to know Him? Go for a walk. Get in His Word. Go pray and spend more time listening than talking. Go talk to someone who knows Him and ask them to help you. Here is what I am really saying… GO DO SOMETHING!
Next what do you need to do to put on that new nature?
Helping People Live a Better Story
Brandon Sereg
