Daily Reading for Personal Growth, 40 Days with God

The old life and the new life

3 God has raised you with Christ to a new life. So you should want more and more the things that belong to heaven. That is where Christ is now. He sits there at God's right side. ² So think about the good things that are there in heaven above. Do not think only about things that are on the earth. ³ Remember that your old nature has died. God is keeping your new life safe with Christ. ⁴ You have that new life because you belong to Christ. One day, Christ will show himself clearly to everyone. Then everyone will see that you are with him. They will see that you also are great, like he is.

⁵ Your old nature likes to do bad things that belong to this earth. But your old nature is dead, so do not do these bad things any more. Do not have sex with someone that you are not married to. Do not think bad, disgusting thoughts. Do not want to have sex in a wrong way. Do not want to do any kinds of bad things. Do not want to have many things for yourselves. That shows that you worship those things as your idol. ⁶ God will certainly punish people who do those kinds of bad things.

⁷ At one time, you lived like that. You did those kinds of bad things. ⁸ But now you must refuse to do all kinds of things like that. Do not become angry with people or shout at them. Do not do anything or say anything that will hurt other people. Do not speak any bad or disgusting words. ⁹ Do not deceive each other with lies. Remember that you have taken off your old nature, like an old coat. As a result, you can stop doing all the bad things that you liked to do before.

¹⁰ Now you have received a new nature. It is God who made it for you so that you can become more and more like him. You will learn to know him better and better. ¹¹ People have this new nature only because they belong to Christ. That is the important thing. Jews are not different from Gentiles. It does not matter whether someone has circumcised you or not. It does not matter which country you come from or how clever you are. It does not matter whether you are a slave or a free person. Christ is all that matters. He lives in every believer.