Lutheran Devotional 30th July 2025, Wednesday Message
TOPIC: A Great Excuse
SCRIPTURE: Colossians 3:1-11
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If then you were raised with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ is, sitting at the right hand of God. 2 Set your mind on things above, not on things on the earth. 3 For you died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. 4 When Christ who is our life appears, then you also will appear with Him in glory.
5 Therefore put to death your members which are on the earth: fornication, uncleanness, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry. 6 Because of these things the wrath of God is coming upon the sons of disobedience, 7 in which you yourselves once walked when you lived in them.
8 But now you yourselves are to put off all these: anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, filthy language out of your mouth. 9 Do not lie to one another, since you have put off the old man with his deeds, 10 and have put on the new man who is renewed in knowledge according to the image of Him who created him, 11 where there is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcised nor uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave nor free, but Christ is all and in all.
What do you do when you are tempted? How do you cope when you feel the urge to do something you know isn’t right—to gossip, to tell lies, to treat other people badly because you see some advantage in it for you?
Paul tells us we can make a very simple excuse when we run into temptation: “Sorry, I can’t do that, I’m dead today.” Because dead people can’t do anything, right?
Seriously, that is the logic of what Paul’s saying. He tells us that if we belong to Jesus, we share in His death and resurrection. We are not the people we once were. Jesus has given Himself for us, and now everything is different, new. In a very real sense, we are dead—dead to our former lives, dead to the world of temptations around us. We belong somewhere else—with Christ, in heaven. And so now it’s time to let the Holy Spirit show us what it’s like to live that way—not as people of this world, but as people of God’s kingdom.
Now the fact that we are dead cuts two ways. If we are no longer obligated to take an interest in the temptations that come our way, neither do we have the power to do anything good on our own. That’s only going to happen if Jesus is living in us and through us. Because He’s the One who raises us from the dead—in spirit now, and in spirit and body both on the Last Day, when He returns in glory. So we rely on Him.
WE PRAY: Lord, You’ve made me to share in Your death and resurrection. Please live in me now, so that I can live for You, who love me. Amen.
Reflection Questions
- What makes being dead such a great excuse for getting out of things?
- What’s a temptation you’d really like to be dead to?
- Take a moment to ask the Lord to help you with it by living through you.
Today’s Readings:
Psalms 113-115
1 Thessalonians 3
This Daily Devotion was written by Dr. Kari Vo.
