THINKING AND LIVING

 

     Depraved thinking and immoral behavior are the consequences of departing from God's teching about purity. "So I tell you this, and insist on it in the Lord, that you must no longer live as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their thinnking. They are darkened in their understanding and separated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them due to the hardening of their hearts. Having lost all sensitivity, they have given themselves over to sensuality so as to indulge in every kind of impurity, with a continual lust for more" (Eph. 4:17-19, NIV).

 

     In contrast is the thinking and behavior of the mind guided by the truth of God's word. "You, however, did not come to know Christ that way. Surely you heard of him and were taught in him in accordance with the truth that is in Jesus. You were taught, with regard to your former way of life, to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires; to be made new in the attitude of your minds; and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness" (Eph. 4:20-24, NIV).

 

                                             Ray Bean