Habits!
V24 n2
Definition of habits: usual physical or mental condition; an
action so often repeated as to become a fixed characteristic or tendency; an
addiction.
Definition for character: individuality; the sum of traits
and habits that make up a person’s mental and moral being.
In last
weeks newsletter, we talked about how people will make resolutions at certain
times or days of the year. We also made note of how often these resolutions,
promises, pledges or oaths are kept and made good on, for any longer then a day
or two before they are forgotten. Is it peer pressure that causes people to
make these promises or pledges?
There are
as many reasons for people making these promises, as there is the difference
between the varying habits in which the people are dealing with. Yet, if one is
truly living for God, by and through Christ Jesus, then their main purpose or
motivation for wanting to deal with a habit or trait, should be in their desire
to please God. Yet, all to often people try to make these changes to please or
impress the people that they are associating with.
For most
Christians, they have spent the biggest part of their lives living outside of
God’s kingdom. As a result of this, they have developed habits or traits which
have placed them in opposition to God and His Word. The only way in which one
is able to overcome these habits and traits, is by a person learning to hear
God and His Word; allowing that Word to come into their heart and mind, hearing
and understanding Father’s correction on the habit or trait which He is
addressing, and then heeding this Word, and allowing it to become an actual way
of life. This is the only way in which a person is able to grow up into Him in
all things.
Often times
people try to change or alter their habits and traits, by imitating that which
they see other people doing. (Isn’t that what the seven sons of Sceva were doing?) Others, will try to change in order to
please other people, rather then to be pleasing to God. What is it that is
motivating you to seek to make changes in your habits, or traits? (John 8:29,
Heb 5:8-9)
When a
person is born again, the spirit that is within a person goes from a state of
spiritual death, to that of being spiritually alive in Christ. (1Cor
Now, once
one has arrived at this place, now they have to put away the former way of
thinking and living. Father chastens or corrects the believer by and through
His Word. This is accomplished by
hearing, understanding that which is spoken, and then becoming obedient to that
which God has spoken to that person through His Word. It is by one’s obedience
to the Word of God, that they are then able to overcome the bad habits or
traits, and gain victory in their life by and through Christ Jesus.
2 Corinthians 5:16-17, 16 Wherefore henceforth know we no
man after the flesh: yea, though we have known Christ after the flesh, yet now
henceforth know we him no more. 17 Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a
new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.
KJV
Let us look
at Adam Clarke’s comments on these verses.
[If any man
be in Christ, he is a new creature] It is vain for a man to profess affinity to
Christ according to the flesh, while he is unchanged in his heart and life, and
dead in trespasses and sins; for he that is in Christ, that is, a genuine
Christian, having Christ dwelling in his heart by faith, is a new creature; his
old state is changed: he was a child of Satan, he is now a child of God; he was
a slave of sin, and his works were death; he is now made free from sin, and has
his fruit unto holiness, and the end everlasting life. He was before full of
pride and wrath; he is now meek and humble. He formerly had his portion in this
life, and lived for this world alone; he now has God for his portion, and he
looks not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are eternal.
Therefore, old things are passed away.
[Behold,
all things are become new.] The man is not only mended, but he is new made; he
is a new creature, a new creation, a little world in himself; formerly, all was
in chaotic disorder; now, there is a new creation, which God himself owns as
his workmanship, and which he can look on and pronounce very good. (from Adam
Clarke Commentary)
Let us look
at Matthew Henry’s comments on the same verses.
A thorough change of
the heart: For if any man be in Christ, if any man be a Christian indeed, and
will approve himself such, he is, or he must be, a new creature, v. 17. Some
read it, Let him be a new creature. This ought to be the care of all who
profess the Christian faith, that they be new creatures; not only that they
have a new name, and wear a new livery, but that they have a new heart and new
nature. And so great is the change the grace of God makes in the soul, that, as
it follows, old things are passed away-- old thoughts, old principles, and old
practices, are passed away; and all these things must become new. Note,
Regenerating grace creates a new world in the soul; all things are new. The
renewed man acts from new principles, by new rules, with new ends, and in new
company. (from Matthew Henry's Commentary)
Let us look at Barnes comments on the same verses.
[Therefore
if any man be in Christ] The phrase to "be in Christ," evidently
means to be united to Christ by faith; or to be in him as the branch is in the
vine-- that is, so united to the vine, or so in it, as to derive all its
nourishment and support from it, and to be sustained entirely by it. <John
15:2>, "every branch in me." <John 15:4>, "abide in me,
and I in you." "The branch cannot bear fruit of itself except it
abide in the vine; no more can ye except ye abide in me." See also
<John 15:5-7>, see the note on <John 15:2>. To be "in
Christ" denotes a more tender and close union; and implies that all our
support is from him. All our strength is derived from him; and denotes further
that we shall partake of his fullness, and share in his felicity and glory, as
the branch partakes of the strength and vigor of the parent vine. The word
"therefore" [Hooste (grk 5620)] here
implies that the reason why Paul infers that anyone is a new creature who is in
Christ is that which is stated in the previous verse; to wit, the change of
views in regard to the Redeemer to which he there refers, and which was so
great as to constitute a change like a new creation. The affirmation here is
universal, "if any man be in Christ;" that is, all who become true
Christians-- undergo such a change in their views and feelings as to make it
proper to say of them that they are new creatures. No matter what they have
been before, whether moral or immoral; whether infidels or speculative
believers; whether amiable, or debased, sensual and polluted yet if they become
Christians they all experience such a change as to make it proper to say they
are a new creation.
[A new
creature] Margin, "Let him be." This is one of the instances in which
the margin has given a less correct translation than is in the text. The idea
evidently is, not that he ought to be a new creature, but that he is in fact;
not that he ought to live as becomes a new creature-- which is true enough--
but that he will in fact live in that way, and manifest the characteristics of
the new creation.
(b) To man,
mankind; <Mark 16:15; Col. 1:23>. Here it means a new creation in a moral
sense, and the phrase new creature is equivalent to the expression in <Eph.
4:24>, "The new man, which after God is created in righteousness and
true holiness." It means, evidently, that there is a change produced in
the renewed heart of man that is equivalent to the act of creation, and that
bears a strong resemblance to it-- a change, so to speak, as if the man was
made over again, and had become new. The mode or manner in which it is done is
not described, nor should the words be pressed to the quick, as if the process
were the same in both cases-- for the words are here evidently figurative. But
the phrase implies evidently the following things:
(1) That
there is an exertion of divine power in the conversion of the sinner as really
as in the act of creating the world out of nothing, and that this is as
indispensable in the one case as in the other.
(2) that a
change is produced so great as to make it proper to say that he is a new man.
He has new views, new motives, new principles, new objects and plans of life.
He seeks new purposes, and he lives for new ends. If a drunkard becomes
reformed, there is no impropriety in saying that he is a new man. If a man who
was licentious becomes pure, there is no impropriety in saying that he is not
the same man that he was before. Such expressions are common in all languages,
and they are as proper as they are common. There is such a change as to make
the language proper. And so in the conversion of a sinner. There is a change so
deep, so clear, so entire, and so abiding, that it is proper to say, here is a
new creation of God-- a work of the divine power as decided and as glorious as
when God created all things out of nothing. There is no other moral change that
takes place on earth so deep, and radical, and thorough as the change at
conversion. And there is no other where there is so much propriety in ascribing
it to the mighty power of God. (from Barnes' Notes)
Eph 4:22-24, That ye put off concerning the former
conversation the old man, which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts;
And be renewed in the spirit of your mind; And that ye put on the new man,
which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness. (KJV)
That you need to put off the old habits and traits. How do
you do this? Paul tells us in the above verses, that you need to reject the old
thoughts and ways, by allowing the Word of God to be that which dominates your
mind and thought process. You have to make the choice daily to walk in and by
the Spirit of Christ. You have to take the time to hear and study His Word each
day. Will it be easy? No! For the old habits and ways will not always want to
be easily uprooted and removed. This is why one must continue in the Word on a
daily, moment by moment basis. Today, will you continue in His Word?
That you may know Him,
In the service of Jesus Christ.
Larry Gazelka
www.builtanewministries.org
Copyright © 2002 Built Anew Ministries all rights reserved