A New Attitude

Introduction

A. None of us are perfect. Each of us need to change something about ourselves. Just ask a close friend, spouse, or child and they will gladly tell you what needs to change. As unpleasant as that may be, it is vital that we strive to change that which will result in greater praise to God. Do you remember when you came out of the baptismal waters? For most of us, I suppose we knew something about newness. And maybe we knew something about resolve. We probably intended to be better people and we probably intended to keep sin away as long as we could. How long did it take for you to realize sin was still a present enemy? An hour, a day, a moment?

B. Our text this morning has something to say about our need to recognize that following God means that a change in attitude is needed. It is a text written to inspire and encourage these readers to move into greater focus who God intended for them to be. No longer enemies with one another, these Jews and Gentiles were now to demonstrate God’s wisdom as they maintained the unity that God had given them. This unity was too precious to throw away or to ignore. So in order for them to maintain this unity a new attitude needed to develop. Today we are going to look at this new attitude and learn how we, too, need to change something about the way we look at ourselves and the world in which we live.

Old Self

A. In verses 17–19, Paul describes the Gentile mindset. Of course, to Paul one was either Jewish or Gentile. Gentiles represented what we would call pagan life. Paul says their thinking was futile. And he insists that they are to give up such thinking. Such futile thinking has led to ignorance and insensitivity. Thus, giving their lives to sensual pursuits always wanting more. This is Paul’s description for 1st century pagans. It could easily describe our culture and world as well which reveals that people haven’t changed much over 2000 years.

B. Those who lives are not tuned to God live with futile thinking. Filled with ignorance and insensitivity, pagans give themselves over to what pleases them rather than what pleases God. The problem—never satisfied. Always wanting more—needing more in order to find the same pleasure. In the last 50 years much study has been done about how people in America think and about what makes people tick. What have we learned? Exactly what Paul describes here.

C. Without a moral compass, people call good evil and evil good. Politicians saying the real culprits are laws not their violation of such laws. We have found that the draw of pornography is so strong and overwhelming that in order for men to remain committed to viewing such material the images must become more explicit and violent in order to get the same response. We know that when confronted with a moral dilemma that people will by and large choose what is best for them rather than what may be morally superior.

D. Just in recent months, preachers in Pennsylvania were arrested for hate crimes when they spoke publicly against the sin of homosexuality. An elementary girl in Ohio was suspended from school for reading her Bible during recess. While both cases were eventually dropped, they each reveal the pagan mindset. Hardening of the heart, darkened thinking, insensitive to the moral dilemmas of this world. Is it no wonder that Paul begins this section with an insistence that we must give up living like the pagans.

E. But we don’t, you say? The teenager who gives in to sexual lust is living like the pagans. The adult who allows the things of this life to consume direction and focus. About the same time as Paul wrote this letter, a writer named Petronius wrote about an incident at a banquet he attended. Trimalchio was hosting this banquet and during the feast a slave appeared to read from Trimalchio’s business ledger: Born on July 26 on Trimalchio’s estate at Cumae, thirty male and forty female slaves. Item, 500,000 bushels of wheat transferred from the threshing rooms into storage. On the same date, the slave Mithridates crucified alive for blaspheming the guardian spirit of our master Gaius. On the same date, the sum of 300,000 returned to the safe because it could not be invested. On the same date, in the gardens of Pompeii, fire broke out in the house of the bailiff Nasta. “What?” roared Trimalchio. “When did I buy any gardens at Pompeii?”

F. Do you understand? No mention of the slave crucified. No mention of Nasta’s safety. Insensitive. It is like the person upon hearing of his child’s car wreck asking about the damage to the car without asking about the child’s welfare. Things get twisted. Ignorance reigns. The moral compass isn’t working. Paul says this is the life that we are to leave behind.

New Self

A. In verses 20–24, Paul says a new attitude is needed. No longer are the readers to think like pagans, but to have a new attitude which reflects God’s thinking. This new mind results in a new self which exhibits righteousness and holiness—traits which reveal God’s character. Notice carefully that this new self is not something that we manufacture. This new self has been created. God creates this new attitude within us. Like unity which has been given and our job is to maintain it, so God creates holiness and righteousness within us and we are to live as a reflection of this new self given to us by God.

B. So what does this new self look like? We will look at that in verses 25 and following next week. But this new self is characterized by righteousness and holiness. These words are closely related. Righteousness has to do with how we treat people and holiness with the disposition of our heart toward God. This new self is created in God’s image. Just as God created man to be in his image, so the spiritual man is created in God’s spiritual image. This new self is a reflection of God. How we treat people matters. Our motivation toward God matters. It isn’t about us; it is about God.

1. The old self cares about what it wants. The new self cares about what God wants.

2. The old self seeks its own pleasure; the new self seeks to please God.

3. The old self seeks more and more; the new self finds contentment in God.

C. George Barna who has given much of his adult life to conducting research on and about those who claim to follow God has demonstrated that they are just as likely to lie as those who do not claim to follow God. He further stated in the same research that less than 40% of those who claim to follow God use the Bible as the source for moral guidance. I wonder how many may have said the words of Mahatma Gandhi, “I might have become a Christian if I had ever met one.” We must demonstrate the righteousness and holiness of God. We must reflect the image which has been given to us. We have been given a new image. Let’s live up to that image. Prayer. Invitation.

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