When Good Is Bad

that you put off, concerning your former conduct, the old man which grows corrupt according to the deceitful lusts, (Ephesians 4:22NKJV)

I love the way The Message puts this:  …everything—and I do mean everything—connected with that old way of life has to go. It's rotten through and through. Get rid of it! (Ephesians 4:22)

The Apostle Paul adds this helpful insight:

… If anyone else thinks he may have confidence in the flesh, I more so:  circumcised the eighth day, of the stock of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of the Hebrews; concerning the law, a Pharisee; concerning zeal, persecuting the church; concerning the righteousness which is in the law, blameless. But what things were gain to me, these I have counted loss for Christ. Yet indeed I also count all things loss for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as rubbish, that I may gain Christ and be found in Him, not having my own righteousness, which is from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which is from God by faith; (Philippians 3:4-9 NKJV)

We would gain greater understanding of Paul’s admonition to the Ephesians if we noted from the list above that the things he counted “rubbish” were things of the old man that many would look on and count as “good.”  That’s why The Message says – “and I do mean everything.”  Nothing we did prior to knowing Christ has any merit or place in our walk with Christ, even if it was considered a good thing in the eyes of the world.

We can do something as “good” as supporting a hungry child, without being prompted by God to do so, and it will produce a righteousness not of Christ.  It will produce a self-righteousness that is contrary to Christ.  I know this first hand because I did it.  For years before knowing Jesus, I had a Compassion child.  I did not give for the sake of Christ – or even the child, but for the sake of appeasing my guilty conscience from all the other horrible things I was doing.  And this kept me from coming to the end of my rope sooner than I did because I could always go back to this one act of “righteousness” to justify the many acts of unrighteousness.  

This is vital to grasp because we can easily mistake the “former conduct” as just those “other horrible things” that are obviously sin. But we would miss the more subtle work of the flesh, which is to do something “good” out of a self-centered motivation.  We must “put off” the old man in every form, which is – at the end of the day – simply a dependence upon self that does not acknowledge the Lordship of Christ.

Jesus said, “Apart from me you can do nothing.”  And that “nothing” includes our walk with Him.  If we do not have Christ at the center of our life, we will be walking in things we do in “His name” that will receive the harsh reply in Heaven of “I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!” Matthew 7:23 (NKJV).

Today, I will ask the Holy Spirit to guide my every decision and then pause before making the final choice to be certain it is from Him.  And if I am not sure, I’ll go with the old adage, “When in doubt, leave it out.”  It is better for me to wait than to put on my former self-confidence and move forward without Jesus.