Daily Meditations from John N. N. Ng'ang'a: Week of 25th -31st October : Christians are Citizens of 2 Worlds
Day 1
Col 3:1 Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. 2 Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things. 3 For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God.
We as Christians are citizens of 2 worlds. Or put differently we are ambassadors of heaven on earth. We therefore should live as those sent on a mission to earth aware that we are meant to bring the earth to desire heaven. I am a Christian who has not only died but also risen with Christ. In my true existence I reside "in heavenly places." (Ephesians 2:6). Yes. The old self still manifests itself in the individual Christian-he sins, gets sick, dies; while the new self remains hidden, realized only in the body of the Saviour.
Christians corporate existence in Christ is no less a reality than their individual existence. A Christian's citizenship is in the "Jerusalem which is above" (Gal 4:26), and this demands a continuing transformation of his mind and will to that reality.
What kind of ambassadors are we?
If we get so caught up by our host country and not think of the country we represent then we shall fail in our mission?
Day 2
Col 3:4 When Christ, who is your life, appears, then you also will appear with him in glory.
We need to live 'today' always in the light of tomorrow. And tomorrow will bring us Jesus' 2nd coming. But in the parousia, i.e., when Christ comes again, the Christian will be with him not merely in a corporate sense but in individually fulfilled glory (cf. Rom 8:18; 2 Cor 3:18).
Have we become so comfortable with God's gifts here on earth that the second coming looks like a disturbance? Do we really know how good heaven is when compared with the earth? Do we see the earth as needing rescue or as a place to settle? If you are able to say with Paul that for him to "live is Christ but to die is gain" then heaven and the Second Coming will be things at the forefront of your mind even at the happiest of moments.
Is Christ your life? If not then you will not be part of his Second Coming. In fact for you his coming is scaring since it will also announce his judgment.
Day 3
Colossians 3:5- Put to death, therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly nature: sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires and greed, which is idolatry.
We must seek to live for God rather than for pleasure.
Whatever belongs to your earthly nature probably refers not to literal bodily organs being used immorally (Moule; cf. 1 Cor 6:15) but also to bodily attitudes and actions as expressive of "the old man" (Bruce; cf. Rom 7:23; 8:13). Thus included (as much as fornication) is the sin of covetousness: acquisitive desire or self-seeking. We therefore need a vow to own nothing and a prayer to be delivered from things and from ambition. To call covetousness idolatry is not too strong if we realize that, when we (strongly desire to) own a thing, it actually owns a part of us.
If God is our God then we shall love him above any of the gifts he has given us and we shall therefore put to death anything that seeks to replace this love.
Day 4
Collosians 3:6 Because of these, the wrath of God is coming.
We need both a fear of God and love of God. This is despite his love for you. Wrath (orge; cf. TWNT, V, esp. pp. 419-448) is often associated with anger (thymos), occasionally when attributed to God (Rom 2:8; cf. Rev 16:19; 19:15). God's wrath is the basis for the fear of God (Heb 10:31; James 4:12; Matt 10:28); and it is to be understood not as a momentary emotion but as a settled disposition, a principle of retribution (Rom 1:18; 3:5; 9:22; cf. John 3:36; Heb 3:11), not unlike that of an earthly ruler (Rom 13:4-5; cf. Heb 11:27).
It is often associated with the Day of Judgment (Rom 2:5; 1 Thess 1:10).Far from negating God's love, his warmth confirms it. For without justice mercy loses its meaning because God is righteous and He must hate sin and punish it. Because of this we need to fear sinning against him. But because he is love, we need to be aware that he is our friend and does not desire our punishment.
The fear of God makes us keep away from sin and his love keeps us close to him as we enjoy fellowshipping with him.
Day 5
Col 3:7-8- You used to walk in these ways, in the life you once lived. 8 But now you must rid yourselves of all such things as these: anger, rage, malice, slander, and filthy language from your lips.
Once we become Christians and our belief changes, it must affect our behavior. We must be able to say that the "things I used to do I do not do them any more", "The places used to go, the friends I used to have, the wishes I used to have, the places used to go, I do not go there anymore." Sins of the tongue must be dealt with once we know the Lord. But it all begins with our thought life. Deal with an idea at thought level and it will not be spoken. Expressed sin is contagious, and the control of sin's expression is a long step toward deliverance from it.
What can you say you used to do and do not do anymore?
The devil will always tempt us. But just like we do in school we need to go for higher test once we clear the lower level test. Are you still at the temptation level you were when you got saved? Growth means that you do not operate only at the lower level.
However, we must know that he will tempt at whatever level of maturity, there is an exam for very level.We will never become too mature to fall into a sin only until we get to heaven.
Day 6
Col 3:9-10- 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.
We must live a life of integrity. What you see is what you get when we are practicing Christ's presence in our daily lives. We achieve this by 'putting on and putting off'. Put off (apekdysamenoi), referring to the point of conversion, conveys the ideas of divesting, as of a garment, and of passing judgment upon the old man, i.e., by identification with Christ in his death (see on Col 2:15). Neon (new) or, as elsewhere, kainos (e.g., Ephesians 4:24) is interpreted by the following being renewed (RSV). That is, the corporate "in Christ" existence is increasingly actualized in the individual Christian (cf. 2 Corinthians 3:18; see Introduction).
Thus the image of God, which the first Adam failed to realize, is to be fulfilled in the sons of the second Adam (cf. Gen 1:26; Hebrews 2:5 ff; Rom 8:29; 1 Cor 15:45 ff.). This means that believers not merely put on new attributes, but are undergoing a psychological transformation which, at Christ's parousia, i.e., his second coming, will be seen in its radical and comprehensive character (Romans 12:2; 1 Cor 15:53). Christians, as the second century Epistle to Diognetus expresses it, belong to a 'new race.'
Knowledge of Christ should cause us to live lives of integrity. We should not live a double life. We must be the same people in church as in the place of work or at home.
We must not be like those around us since their home is not our home.
Day 7
Col 3:11 Here there is no Greek or Jew, circumcised or uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave or free, but Christ is all, and is in all.
The church is meant to be classless. People tend to feel united when they are far away from home. Christians must not have classes or ethnicity for we are the whole church reaching whole world. We must accept all as one family whether we are Scythian, the lowest type of barbarian slave, when finally in Christ all distinctions are transcended because at the foot of the cross the ground is level, as Bishop Kivengere of Uganda in IDD AMIN days said. It is "a unity in diversity, a unity which transcends differences and works within them, but never a unity which ignores or denies differences or necessarily seeks to erase them" (E. E. Ellis).
Thus the apostle, who declared that in Christ there is "no male or female," "no Jew or Greek," at the same time instructed women to be silent in the churches and observed Jewish rites which he forbade to Gentiles (Gal 3:28; 1 Cor 11:3 ff.; 14:34; Acts 16:3; 18:18; Rom 14:1; Gal 5:2-3). See on Col 3:18 ff
'since from the same home country you have access to the embassy…the church is our embassy . We therefore should be united in representing our country…heaven .'