THINK TOGETHER
Did you change your clothes today? What did you take off? What did you put on?
READ TOGETHER
I change my clothes every day. Nearly every day I take a shower and then get dressed. Every single day is sort of a fresh start for being clean and for putting on clean clothes. And that’s the picture Paul uses in Ephesians to teach us what it means to be a Christian. To live connected to Jesus means daily taking off the old clothes and putting on the new.
But before we can do that we have to first and foremost remember that we have already put off the old sinful self and we have already put on the new self. Listen to how Paul says it here in Ephesians 4:
Ephesians 4:21-24. 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…24 and to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.
When a person becomes a Christian they are changed forever on the inside. The SELF goes from “old” to “new.”
Do you remember the story of Lazarus in the Bible? Lazarus died and then four days later Jesus raised him from the dead. He went from dead to alive. From old self to new self. And when he walked out of the tomb Jesus said, “Take those old dead man’s clothes off of him.” When Lazarus was dead he wore dead man cloths like a mummy. But once he was alive he put off those old stinky clothes and put on a brand new set of clothes.
And that is what we do as Christians. Because we are now alive with Jesus, every day we get dressed in our “Jesus suit.” We put off the old stinky way of selfish living and put on the new, clean, clothes of Jesus and his love. Each day we can choose to put on our new “Jesus clothes” and we can choose to speak truth, share, encourage, be kind, and forgive.
And the good news is that no matter what “clothes” we wear today, our Jesus clothes or our old selfish clothes, God still loves us no matter what.
What clothes will you wear today?
Because of Jesus we have put off our old selfish self and put on the new Jesus self.
With Jesus we can “dress” like him as we tell the truth, share, encourage, be kind, and forgive.
DO SOMETHING TOGETHER
Talk about what clothes you’ll wear today? Why do you change your clothes? What determines what clothes you will wear? Talk to your kids about how every day we can put on Jesus and his love. Why? Because we have already put on the new self that he gives us.
PRAY TOGETHER
Jesus,
You have changed me forever. Now change me every day into your likeness.
Amen.
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