5 Put to death, therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly nature: sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires and greed, which is idolatry. 6 Because of these, the wrath of God is coming. 7 You used to walk in these ways, in the life you once lived. 8 But now you must also rid yourselves of all such things as these: anger, rage, malice, slander, and filthy language from your lips. 9 Do not lie to each other, since you have taken off your old self with its practices 10 and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge in the image of its Creator. 11 Here there is no Gentile or Jew, circumcised or uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave or free, but Christ is all, and is in all.
(Colossians 3)
What does God want for His people? There really is a blend of me and we. He wants me to stop being selfish and sinful with my mind and my body. He wants me to live before Him as His child, depending on His grace in Chirst to make me more like Him. This distinguishes me from the way unbelievers live their lives. He also wants us to live togther differently, in the way we talk to and about one another, and the heart attitudes we have toward one another. We are not to look on ourselves as better than others, but all of us as forgiven sinners who fall short of Christlikeness and each need Him to transform us, which results in our showing Christlike Community. The second cannot happen without the first. Both are not a tribute to us, but a testimony to God's Love & Christ's power.
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