Living in the world can sometimes feel like a masquerade ball.
We all can’t help but to wear our masks. We project a reality to people around us that doesn’t represent the truth. On the other hand, when we meet someone we sense is living unmasked, it leaves a lasting impression.
The letter to the Colossians reflects a situation in which Jesus followers were struggling with masks. People were going so far as to wear religious masks. They were “putting on” religion (in a bad sense).
According to the writer, that’s not what it means to be a holy individual for the very reason that that’s not who God is and not how God works. As we said last week, God is about reconciliation and transformation, not cover-up schemes. Jesus Christ is the perfect image of the invisible God here to bury all that might separate us from God and all of our masks. As the writer of Colossians says, “You were buried with him through baptism and raised with him through faith in the power of God, who raised him from the dead” (2:12, CEB).
So what is personal holiness? It is intentionally unmasking daily. It is living out daily that we have been buried with Christ in baptism and also raised with him into new life. It is opening ourselves up everyday–in prayer, in reading Scripture, in accountability relationships–to Jesus’ transformation, to Jesus’ mutating us. It is keeping our masks in their proper place and letting the resurrection glory of Christ shine through our faces.
Message from Sunday, September 25, 2016:
image: featured from ;post image from All That Is Interesting
