This week we begin worship with:
Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice. Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you.
This comes at the end of Paul’s instruction to live the new life we have been given.
. . . to put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires, and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.
We are to put off the old and, yes we are to put on the new, but let us never forget that in order for that to be even possible there must be something new! And it is God “in the spirit” who has done that renewal. And being renewed in that way the new self takes on the very “likeness of God”.
Guys know this experience. It is like putting on a well tailored suit. It simply fits. The old pattern doesn’t. The new pattern does.
In fact, it fits so well, that our text for the week is passive. We don’t put away “all bitterness . . .”, we “let” it be put away. Enjoy the fit. The new self looks good on you.
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