“BE RENEWED!”

 Ephesians 4:17-24                     (ESV)

“17 Now this I say and testify in the LORD, that you must no longer walk as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their minds.

18 They are darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of GOD because of the ignorance that is in them, due to their hardness of heart.

19 They have become callous and have given themselves up to sensuality, greedy to practice every kind of impurity.

20 But that is not the way you learned CHRIST!-

21 assuming that you have heard about HIM and were taught in HIM, as the TRUTH is in JESUS,

22 to PUT OFF your OLD SELF, which belongs to your former manner of life and is CORRUPT through DECEITFUL DESIRES,

23 and to “BE RENEWED” in the SPIRIT of your minds,

24 and to put on the new self, created after the likeness of GOD in true righteousness and holiness.”

How is your sight?  How do you SEE what is right before your eyes?  There are people that have EYES that aren’t able to definitively make out exactly what they are looking at, and are technically considered “legally blind”.  Being able to see well enough to get us through “this world” should not be enough for us.  I’ve heard some declare that once they experienced cataract surgery on their eyes, it was as if their eyes had been “RENEWED”!  Their vision was restored! 

Until we experience failing eyesight, we cannot know how much we need our vision corrected.  When we PUT OFF our OLD SELF, it is similar to what I understand that cataract surgery is for my friends.  Some report not even needing glasses any longer.  Some people weren’t even aware there was an eyesight problem until they visited a physician who discovered the issue with their eyes.  

Our SPIRITUAL PHYSICIAN IS JESUS.  HE can diagnose our problems, but we have to admit that HE KNOWS BEST, as HE CREATED us.  We “must no longer walk in...the futility of their minds”, but yield to HIS WILL for our lives.  Trying our best will send us into damnation quicker than anything.  We MUST admit that JESUS is our ONLY HOPE!

Until we admit that we must “BE RENEWED” by the ONLY ONE capable of our redemption, we will continue to flounder in our worthless self-righteousness.  Our CORRUPT and DECEITFUL DESIRES don’t have the capability of saving our souls.  We have to “BE RENEWED” by our CREATOR!!!