Wednesday, January 28, 2009

Neither Slave nor Free

Colossian 3:8-11 “But now you yourselves are to put off all these; anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, filthy language out of your mouth. Do not lie to one another, since you have put off the old man with his deeds, and have put on the new man who is renewed in knowledge according to the image of Him who created him, where there is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcised nor uncircumcised, barbarian, Sythian, slave nor free, but Christ is all in and in all.”

The Holy Spirit connects lying with being arrogant. Greeks looked down on the Jews. Jews looked down on the Greeks. People judged one another based on religious practices such as circumcision. Slaves envied and did not trust the free and free men looked down on slaves. Evidently they believed they did not owe the truth to those beneath them because “it was none of their business”.

That is why the Holy Spirit connects prejudice and lying. Our untruths are symptomatic of our belief that we are stronger than others and therefore can tolerate the truth that others cannot tolerate. We are convinced that we know what is best for someone else and thus excuse our exaggerations, partial truths or out right fabrications.

Our lies reveal more about our pride than the weakness of those we choose to “protect.”