Insightful Musings on the Scriptures

by

Raymond P. Sparre
Northwest University class of '67

Good evening, dear ones.

I guess at 6:45pm, it’s more appropriate to say, “Good evening” rather than, “Good afternoon.” I can’t believe how this weekend has dissolved into history already. And I’m already compiling plans for a pretty thick day tomorrow

Please have a good evening. And let’s stay renewed (2 Cor. 4:16-18).

Love, Dad/Ray.

Every kid likes a new toy. I guess I’m no exception—I like new stuff too. But life and experience has taught me that there is a down-side to this persistent human hang-up. New stuff that is given any kind of use simply cannot remain new stuff. Nor does the new excitement that goes with the new stuff remain new excitement for very long. This can apply to a new doll, a new toy truck, a new bike, a new car, a new piece of property, a new girlfriend, a new marriage, and even a new faith or conversion experience. The best we can do in view of this built-in degeneration problem is to maintain what is valuable and desirable in a condition as close to new as possible.

Let me quote here verses 9 and 10 of our reading to set the context clearly before us. “Do not lie to each other, since you have taken off your OLD SELF with its practices and have put on the NEW SELF, which is being RENEWED in knowledge in the image of its Creator.” I’ve capitalized what I judge to be key words. Do you get the point? The NEW SELF, left to itself, will naturally run down and wear out just like any other self. But since the Creator of the NEW SELF is God Who is supernatural and Who does not run down or wear out, he offers a kind of miraculous maintenance program to those who will continually set their minds on things above (3:2) and “grow in grace and KNOWLEDGE of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ” (2 Pet. 3:18) through His inexhaustible Living Word. So in summary, it is not enough to simply replace the OLD with the NEW; the NEW must constantly be RENEWED.