We Need to Die Daily

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Col. 3:5 Put to death, therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly nature: sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires and greed, which is idolatry.

When I was in college, every time my scholarship allowance was delayed, I accepted part-time jobs from my professors. Sometimes I do house cleaning and gardening, but most of the time, I do weeding in their garden. When I say weeding, I mean weeding. It was not some half-pie effort. I got rid of all the little and not-so-little weedy nasties. I made sure I dug under the earth, pulled the roots out, tried to get any bulbs if there were any. In the end, it will be the most pristine-looking garden in the neighborhood. I said to my professor: “All right, that’s it. I’ve done it. Got them all. Nothing but pure good soil from here on. I’ll never have to weed here again.” Then I got this look from my professor and told me “Okay then, come back here after a month”. Sure enough, after 1 month, those weeds are standing tall again!

Unfortunately, this is what the Apostle Paul means in the verse above when he says “putting to death our earthly nature.” The word “death” here does not mean permanently gone. It does not mean you can kill it off and then that’s it! It’s all gone. I killed it! Hooray! I put lust and greed to death and never again shall I ever have to worry about them! Although this sounds wonderful, but nothing in our fallen nature works like that. ‘Death’ and ‘kill’ in this passage don’t mean without life or ceasing to exist. When you look this word up in Greek it is used metaphorically meaning “to deaden, to deprive of force and vigor.” This is why Paul advice us to die daily (1 Cor. 15:31)