1Peter 4:3
3For you have spent enough time in the past doing what pagans choose to do-living in debauchery, lust, drunkenness, orgies, carousing and detestable idolatry.
The apostle Peter addressed the Gentile Christians scattered across Asia Minor. Gentiles were unlike the Jews in that they did not grow up in the holiness lifestyle and belief of that of the Jews. The Gentiles were converted to have a belief in Jesus Christ and God the Father. The Gentiles once lived as pagans but after conversion left their pagan lifestyle. Peter wanted to encourage the Gentiles because he knew they were looked at as strange for no longer participating in the lifestyle they knew. Guess what? We're still looked at strange for not doing what the world does. Just as Peter said, we did enough of all the things listed in our past. The apostle Paul said we are a new creation in 2Corinthians 5:17. So why then do so many of us attempt to put our past back on like dirty rags? Let the past die. It is the old skin we once lived in. We cannot please God and sinful man at the same time. As Peter said, the pagans made a choice. We've already made our choice as followers of Christ. Now it's time for us to live that choice. The Holy Spirit is the revealer of ALL truth. We know when we're not in line with the choice we declared before our Lord. As we grow in our Christian faith, the Lord will strip us of our old life. But we must make the choice to grow. Afraid of missing something by continuing to live in the past? It's the present and the future that the Lord has for each of us that will be greatly missed if we refuse to let the past die.
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