We need to see that culture undermines our enjoyment of Christ, for whenever we return to the old manner of life, we are darkened within and estranged from God’s life; if we truly desire to be renewed, we need to put off the former manner of life, for in the new man there’s room only for Christ!
When Paul speaks of putting on the new man, he first tells us that we need to put off, as it regards to the former manner of life, the old man.
What is this “old manner of life”? The manner of life implies a great deal, for in every country, in every city, and even in every family there is a particular manner of life.
We are born in a particular family, in a particular city, in a particular country, and on a particular continent; we grow up and inherit the culture of all these, and we spontaneously and effortlessly live this way.
And when we become a believer and come into the church life, we bring our old way of living into the church life; we do this not consciously but unconsciously.
We need to realize, however, that if we continue to live according to the old man, the church life will be seriously damaged, even terminated.
In the church as the new man, there is no room for any culture, religion, social class, or even person – there’s room only for Christ.
Christ needs to become the unique replacement for all the other things and people, for in the new man Christ is all and in all.
Whenever we live according to our old manner of life, when we have our old way of living (which by default is our way of living), we are in danger of damaging the church life.
However, if we put off the old man with its former manner of life, the church life will be marvelous, for it will be a miniature of the New Jerusalem, and there will be no possibility for a division to come in. Hallelujah!
If we live according to our culture, that is, if we just allow the old man to live and express itself in our daily living and in the church life, we are “mount Sinai” with all kinds of rules, demands, and commandments; we impose our way of living on ourselves and criticize others according to it. Oh, Lord!
May the primary matter in the church life be simply the enjoyment of Christ as the tree of life and drinking the Spirit as the water of life, and may we all seek to have God shining on us as the light of life!
May the church life be rather a miniature of the New Jerusalem instead of being a collection of brothers and sisters each living according to their culture!
For the church life to be a miniature of the New Jerusalem, we need to actively put off the old manner of life, put off the old man, putting off whatever we are, whatever we do, and whatever we have, and put on the new man, the church life, the one new man with its new way of living.
This is our need today for the church as the one new man.
Our Old Manner of Life leads to being Darkened within – we need to Put Off the Old Man and put On the New Man!
The book of Colossians in its depths deals not with sin (as 1 Corinthians does) or with the law (as Galatians does) but with man’s culture, for culture has pervaded the church in Colossae.
Culture is very subtle, for it is the unconscious living of every human being, and in our experience culture defrauds us of the enjoyment of Christ and frustrates our church life.
Sin is here with us today, but it doesn’t bother us as much as culture does; the law is also here, but we’re not troubled by it as much as we’re troubled by culture.
Actually, we are unconsciously and subconsciously under the influence of culture; we are oblivious to it, and the only way we can see it when the Lord shines on us and when we meet with the saints, when we blend, and when we enjoy the Lord together.
A person can boast of his race; he is proud for being from a certain country or from a particular city of a country, and he may even have an air of superiority about his background. Oh, Lord!
Culture is the systematic method that we have developed to exist and to maintain our being; it is something that we live out by default, without thinking about it or making any effort to carry it out.
And the stronger our culture is, the more we’re critical of others, for we think our culture is better than theirs, and we may judge or criticize them based on our culture.
Based upon our culture, we may develop our own type of asceticism, that is, we may build up some practices to restrict the indulgence of our flesh.
Based on our culture, we may devise some methods to restrain ourselves and to keep us from doing sinful things.
This all sounds good, but it is not Christ; we may live out certain practices that may be quite good and moral, but they are not Christ living in us.
In the new man, there CANNOT BE this culture or that culture, for Christ is all and in all. Oh, Lord!
If we truly desire to be renewed for the one new man, we need to put off the former manner of life, which involves our way of living and our culture.
For the church as the one new man, our old manner of life needs to be put off, for in the new man there’s no possibility for Greek and Jew, barbarian and Scythian, slave and free man to exist. In the new man, the former manner of life found among all peoples has been put away.
The Greek words rendered “there cannot be” in Col. 3:11 are very strong; they mean that there is no possibility for something to exist (see Word Studies of the New Testament, by Vincent).
In the church life there may be all kinds of people from all kinds of backgrounds, but only Christ should be all and in all.
Whenever we return to our old manner of life, we will spontaneously sense that we are darkened within and we’re estranged from God’s life (Eph. 4:17-19).
We should no longer walk like the Gentiles walk, in the vanity of their mind; we should not walk in the vanity of our mind as the unbelievers do.
Rather, we need to be renewed by putting off the old manner of life and putting on the one new man!
If we neglect our spirit, if we don’t live according to our spirit, we live just like the unbelievers; we are alienated from the life of God, and we are in darkness.
Outwardly we may not sin or do bad things but rather, we may live according to the good aspects of our culture, but actually we are under the authority of darkness. Oh, Lord!
We do not want to be alienated from the life of God but rather, be filled with the life of God, live out the life of God, and allow the life of God to be expressed through us as we put off the old man and put on the new man!
Lord Jesus, we truly desire to be renewed, so we put off the old manner of life and put on the new man, the church life! Amen, Lord, may it be so real to us that in the new man there is no possibility for any culture, for here Christ is all and in all! Save us from returning to our old manner of life and thus be darknened within and estranged from God’s life. Oh Lord, we turn to You, we open to You, and we want to be filled with Your life! May Your life fill us, saturate us, be expressed through us, and be manifested in our living! Amen, dear Lord, we gladly put off the old manner of life and put on Christ, the new man, to live Christ and not our culture!
In order to have the Church Life, we need to Put Off the Old Manner of Life and Live the New Man by Living in the Spirit
Realizing that in the church as the one new man Christ is all and in all, we should put off the old manner of life and live in the new way of life, the life of the new man.
Actually, for us to have the church life, we all – who come from different cultures and countries and backgrounds – have to put off the old man, which is embodied in our former manner of life.
Figuratively speaking, at the door to enter the church life there’s the cross; the cross crosses out everything we are in the natural man, and it brings us into resurrection, where we are a new person, a God-man.
Through regeneration, the one new man has been put into us; we were formerly under the influence of the differences caused by Babel, and we treasured our heritage and culture.
What should we do then, should we still live in our way of life even as we come into the church life? Should we justify our way of living and glory in our manner of life? No.
Each way of life involves ordinances and traditions; these all have been terminated on the cross by Christ, and on the cross, the one new man was created in Himself.
Hallelujah, in Christ we are one new man! And our manner of life should be Christ Himself.
Instead of treasuring our heritage, we should forget it, disown it, and put on the new man to live the new man in a new way of life, the church life.
On the negative side, we should put off the old manner of life, and on the positive side, we need to see that the new man is in our spirit, so we need to live in spirit.
This is the secret: our mingled spirit. The new man is in our spirit; our living and behavior need to be not in our mind or in our soul, according to the ways that we have been taught and brought up, but according to our spirit.
The spirit needs to become the dominant part of our being; we need to exercise our spirit, be strengthened into our spirit, and allow the spirit to take the lead in our whole being.
Our spirit is mingled with the Spirit of God; this mingled spirit needs to spread into our mind and become the spirit of our mind (Eph. 4:23).
May we not return to our old manner of life and thus be darkened within and estranged from God’s life; may we simply repudiate and put aside the old man with its old manner of life, and put on the new man by living in spirit!
The life of the fallen man, as described by Paul in Eph. 4:17-19, is vanity, darkness, estrangement from God, ignorance, and hardness; whenever we live according to our old community life, we don’t sense any shining, life, or brightness within. Oh, Lord!
We may even reason that the Bible doesn’t tell us not to do this or that, so it is permissible to do this or that thing; however, that particular thing of our culture estranges us from the life of God and keeps us in darkness.
This has led many times in Christianity to so-called churches according to nationality; what a deplorable situation this is.
In ourselves, we automatically prefer our old community life, but our way of life must become absolutely new in nature, manner, and practice.
In the church life, we have the real rainbow coalition, for we have people from all different backgrounds and cultures, but we all learn to live Christ by living in spirit! May we all learn to put off the old community life, the old manner of life, and put on the new man to live Christ by living in spirit, thus living out the life of the one new man!
Lord Jesus, we choose to live according to the mingled spirit today! Hallelujah, our spirit is regenerated, and the life of God is in our spirit! Praise the Lord, the one new man is in our spirit, and we can put off the old man and put on the new man, the new living of the regenerated man! Amen, Lord, even though we automatically prefer our old community life, we choose to put off the old manner of life, disown it, and repudiate it, for we want to live in spirit and according to the spirit! We want to be renewed in the spirit of the mind, allowing the mingled spirit to spread into our mind and become the dominant part of our being. Amen, Lord, may we all realize the life of the new man in the church life today!
References and Hymns on this Topic
- Sources of inspiration: the Word of God, my enjoyment in the ministry, the message by Ed Marks for this week, and portions from, Life-study of Ephesians, msg. 93 (Witness Lee), as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, The All-Inclusive, Extensive Christ Replacing Culture for the One New Man (2020 Thanksgiving Conference), week 4, Being Renewed Day by Day with the Fresh Supply of the Resurrection Life to Replace Our Culture and to Become the One New Man in Reality by Becoming as New as the New Jerusalem.
- Hymns on this topic:
– Put on the one new man, / The old man strip away. / Pass through the cross to take Christ as / Our Person now today. / The Spirit with the cross / Is our unique supply / That causes us to be renewed / As one new man thereby. (Song on, One Person and One Way)
– Only Christ, our Person, must remain; / From our aims, our goals we must refrain, / Till the church be only Christ Himself / Built up as the one new man. (Hymns #1180)
– Minding just the spirit, we the cross will know, / And His resurrection pow’r thru us will flow; / Minding just the spirit, Christ will live thru me, / And His life within will reach maturity. (Hymns #593)
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