The Opposite Spirit

Read: Colossians 3

You used to do these things when your life was still part of this world. Colossians 3:7

IN WORD

Being a new creation in Christ implies a lot of change—not subtle adjustments but radical overhauls. We no longer think the same way, talk the same way, or walk the same way. Our attitude shifts because our identity has shifted. We are no longer “only human.” We are fully human, with the archetype of true humanity living inside of us. And that means we are no longer under the thumb of this world’s oppressive spirit.

Yet something strange happens to us new creatures when we walk back into old situations. We have a tendency to conform to old ways. In order to influence business, we may get sucked into a spirit of corporate greed, or in an attempt to influence the political arena, we might be drawn into “politics as usual.” Old relationships trigger us into old relational patterns. Past environments stir up past habits. Soon we are swimming in competitiveness, manipulation, criticism, and all the dynamics of the former nature—even when we were trying to make a difference and influence our world with God’s ways.

IN DEED

How can we break out of that magnetic pull of the world? We have to walk in the opposite spirit of the arenas we live and work in. If we enter an ego-filled entertainment industry, we have to go in humility. If we enter a profit-obsessed corporation, we have to go in without a hint of greed. If we’re in education, we need an attitude of learning rather than a spirit of indoctrinating. In politics, we need truth and respect rather than deception and manipulation. In media, we need hope rather than negativity. Whatever spirit holds any area of life captive, we can only begin to undo it in the God-given opposite spirit. When we walk in His perspective and His ways, evil may oppose us for a while. But it eventually must bow.

Relentlessly insist on higher ways. Never embrace the spirit of the world in place of the Spirit of Christ. In every area of life, live in the new. The old has no power over you anymore.

ADDITIONAL READING: Ephesians 2:1-5

Christian experience is not so much a matter of imitating a leader as accepting and receiving a new quality of life.

H. A. WILLIAMS