Putting off

Dear friends, below an excerpt of D.M.L-Jones' excellent series of Ephesians. I am afraid this might be one of many excerpts in this blog.

That you put off concerning the former conversation, the old man, which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts; and be renewed in the spirit of you mind; that ye put on the new man which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness. Ephesians 4:22-24

Thus far we have demonstrated that sin in every respect is deceitful, from the devil downwards- the devil, his agents, sin itself, sin in me, and sin in my members. How does it deceive? How does this element of deceit come out of sin? It does so by coming to us as a would-be friend. It always flatters us. When the devil in his subtlety and his deceitfulness came to Eve he flattered her. He said: God is not fair to you, He has put a prohibition upon you; He should not have done so; He is afraid that you will become as He is.  In this way he was paying her a subtle compliment. 

Sin always comes with a smile; it is most ingratiating, it always pays us compliments; we are very wonderful-if only we listen! It plays on our pride in some shape or form, our appearance, our good looks, our nature, something about us-wonderful! And so it deceives us by flattering us. It is always attractive, of course. (...)

And then another thing which sin does- and this is a part of its whole art of deceit - it always discourages thought, it always discourages meditation. Sin knows that it has only got one hope of succeeding, and that is to play upon the feelings and your desires. If the mind really begins to operate, sin is finished, and therefore in its subtlety, its play on the feelings and discourages mind and thought. We all know something of this. You find yourself in a temper simply because you did not think of what you were doing. It governed and controlled you. It makes us live for the moment only. We fail to think beyond the present moment, and then it has got you! If only men and women thought ahead, how different life would be! But they do not; sin discourages thought, and this is part of its strategy of deceit.

[bold emphasis not in the original]

D. M Lloyd-Jones

Chapter 10 'Corruption, Lusts, Deceits' 

Darkeness and Light 4:17-5:17

Ephesian Series