«　WEEK 7　DAY 5　»

　　Col. 3:10-11 And have put on the new man, which is being renewed unto full knowledge according to the image of Him who created him, where there cannot be Greek and Jew, circumcision and uncircumcision, barbarian, Scythian, slave, free man, but Christ is all and in all.

　　The focal point of being renewed in the spirit of our mind is for the one new man. [According to Colossians 3:10-11], in the new man Greek and Jew, circumcision and uncircumcision, barbarian, Scythian, slave, and free man have no place. The renewal is not merely for our behavior. The renewal is even more to get rid of our racial ordinances and to get rid of the natural persons. Not only is there no natural person in the new man, but there is no possibility, no room, for any natural person. In the new man there is room only for Christ. The new man is not Chinese, Japanese, French, English, German, or American. The new man is Christ. Christ is all and in all in the new man. In the new man there cannot be any Jew or Greek. There cannot be any Chinese or any Japanese. In the new man there cannot be any white or any black. We all need to be renewed for the existence of the one new man. (CWWL, 1977, vol. 3, “The One New Man,” pp. 516-517)

　　In Colossians 3:10 are the creation of the new man and his renewal. The creation was completed on the cross, but the renewal needs to go on. We need to have our mind renewed for the existence of the new man. God has created the new man, but the new man has not fully come into existence because of our unrenewed mind. Our mind is the problem….For people from different races and cultures to get saved is much easier than being renewed concerning their way of living. The ordinances in Japan are absolutely different from the ordinances in the United States. Everywhere I traveled I had to adjust to the particular ordinances of the people I visited. These different ordinances usually create a problem for us because our mind needs more renewing.

　　God created one corporate man. God needed that man to fulfill His heart's desire, but man fell and became divided and scattered. By being divided and scattered, man became useless in the hands of God. Look at today's situation. The whole world is a divided and scattered world….The real situation of the world is that the nations of this earth are not united but divided. In every level of society there is division.

　　Romans 12:2 exhorts us not to be conformed to this age….To not be conformed to this age means…that we should not follow the way of divisions. Romans 12:2 and Ephesians 4:23 are concerning the matter of renewing, and both verses are for the Body life….If you look into the context of Romans 12, you can see that the will of God is to have the Body. The renewing of the mind is for the Body life. The problems in the Body life are related to the different ordinances.

　　Paul was all-inclusive when he listed the types of natural persons for which there is no room in the new man. The Greeks are for philosophical wisdom; the Jews, for miraculous signs (1 Cor. 1:22). Circumcision refers to the observers of the Jewish religious rituals; uncircumcision to those who do not care for the Jewish religion. A barbarian is an uncultured person. Scythians were considered the most barbarous. A slave was one who had been sold into slavery, and a free man was one who was free from slavery. Christians today have been divided by race, by nationality, by language, and also by religious matters. Some Christians are for baptism by immersion, whereas others are for sprinkling. This is no different than being for circumcision or uncircumcision. Religious matters can divide Christians. Others have divided over the way a Christian meeting should be held. Religious opinions always divide the members of the Body. We need to be renewed in our natural mind, which means that our mind needs to be filled up and saturated with the Spirit. The Spirit needs to permeate every fiber of our mentality. (CWWL, 1977, vol. 3, “The One New Man,” pp. 517-518)

　　Further Reading: CWWL, 1977, vol. 3, “The One New Man,” chs. 3, 5-7