«　WEEK 4　DAY 2　»

　　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.

　　If we get into the depths of the book of Colossians, we shall see that it deals not with sin or with the law, but with man’s culture. Culture is the unconscious living of every human being…. What defrauds us of the enjoyment of Christ and frustrates the church life is our culture. Today mainly we are not troubled by the sinful things, as in 1 Corinthians, nor by the law, as in Galatians. But we are all unconsciously and subconsciously under the influence of culture. When we came into the church life, we brought our culture with us. This culture is now undermining our enjoyment of Christ. Culture is the systematic method we have developed to exist and to maintain our being. The stronger our culture is, the more critical we shall be of others. Based upon the culture we have, we develop our type of asceticism, our own practices to restrict the indulgence of the flesh. Our asceticism is the method we devise to restrain ourselves and to keep from doing sinful things. (Life-study of Colossians, pp. 275-276)

　　In his Word Studies of the New Testament Vincent says that in the Greek language the words rendered “cannot be” [in Colossians 3:11] are very strong and mean that there is no possibility. In the new man there is no possibility for Greek and Jew, Barbarian and Scythian, bondman and free man to exist, because the former manner of life found among these peoples has been put away. No doubt, in the church in Colossae there were people from all these backgrounds. Nevertheless, according to Paul’s word in Ephesians 4:22, they all had to put away their former manner of life. By doing this they were renewed.

　　Through regeneration, the one new man has been put into us, those who formerly had been under the influence of the differences caused by Babel…. What should we do about this heritage? We should bury it. This means that we must put off the former manner of life. Do not justify your manner of life or glory in it. The issue is not which manner of life is right and which is wrong. Every way of life involves ordinances and must be put off. How deplorable it is to see so-called churches formed according to nationality!… When we come together for the practice of the genuine church life, we must all put off our national heritage and forget it. Instead of treasuring our heritage, we should disown it. On the positive side, we need to see that the new man has already been created and, by regeneration, has been put into our spirit. The need now is for our spirit to become the dominant part of our being. This means that our spirit mingled with the Spirit of God must become the spirit of our mind (4:23). If our spirit is the spirit of our mind, then all our living will be by the spirit. Whatever we do will be according to the spirit. This spirit of our mind will then become the renewing spirit. As we are renewed by this spirit, we put on the new man.

　　Whenever we return to the old manner of life, we shall spontaneously sense that we are darkened within and estranged from God’s life. If we persist in living according to the former manner of life, we shall eventually become calloused and insensitive.

　　Consider how many terms Paul uses to describe the life of fallen man in verses 17 through 19. He refers to vanity, darkness, estrangement, ignorance, and hardness. Whenever we live according to our old community life, we do not sense any shining or brightness within. We may reason that it is permissible to do a certain thing, but we realize that it causes us to be alienated from the life of God and to be in darkness. (Life-study of Ephesians, pp. 219, 221-222, 780)

　　Further Reading: Life-study of Colossians, msg. 33; Life-study of Ephesians, msg. 93