Be a sponge

This week I moved further into and through Paul’s epistles, as well as finishing Acts.   Specifically I read through Acts 20 – 28, Romans 11 – 16, Colossians 1 – 4, Philemon, and Ephesians 1 – 6.  Something interesting struck me as I was reading through Colossians chapter 3.  The specific passages were in Colossians 3:8 – 11 … during a section in which Paul is talking to the church at Colossi (and us) about, now that we are followers of Christ, how we should act and how we should be different.  The passage says,

But now you must stop doing such things.  You must quit being angry, hateful, and evil.  You must no longer say insulting or cruel things about others.  And stop lying to each other.  You have given up your old way of life with its habits.  Each of you is now a new person.  You are becoming more and more like your Creator, and you will understand him better.  It doesn’t matter if you are a Greek or a Jew, or if you are circumcised or not.  You may even be a barbarian or a Scythian, and you may be a slave or a free person. Yet Christ is all that matters, and he lives in all of us.

So you’ll have to bear with me as I unpack the relatively unconventional allegory that came to mind about the topics in this passage as they relate to us.  Simply put, what this passage is telling us is to change the way we live, the behaviors and attitudes that seep out of us.  In a way, I sort of visualized this like a sponge (and no, not because of the incessant episodes of SpongeBob Square Pants that the kids watch … though the concept is pretty funny).

Think about a sponge … let’s say your general household sponge.  A sponge on its own, with no liquid (water, cleanser, etc.) is pretty unusable.  They can contain a multitude of liquids, those that are harmful and those that are beneficial.   They can soak up quite a significant bit more than their own mass.  When squeezed, what’s actually in them leaks out.  If no liquid is put in them, over time they dry up and become brittle and useless.  If liquid is put in them and left inside them without being put to use, they can become quite nasty, smelly and dirty, hardly useable at all.

Turning the analogy around a little to make it remotely applicable to the passage at hand, in order for us to be the new people under Christ that we should be, we have to think of ourselves as sponges.  That is, just as a sponge with no liquid in it is pretty useless, so are we if we haven’t allowed God to fill us with His Holy Spirit when we come to faith in Jesus.  That’s the first step.  However, we can also allow a multitude of liquids to take on absorption in us … many of the traits Paul mentions in the Colossians passage … anger, hatred, cruelty, lying, bitterness, pride, etc.  Those are harmful.  There are other “liquids” we can fill up with … such as those referred to as the fruit of the spirit – love, joy peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control, etc. (which Paul writes about in Galatians 5).  Those are the beneficial ones.

Just as sponges, we have an incredible capacity to soak up these liquids, both good and bad.   And just like our household sponges, we rarely fill ourselves to the fullest capacity possible.  But no matter what, when we’re pressured, stressed or squeezed, we find out what is truly in us … because what’s actually in us is what leaks out under distress.

If we put no liquid (via the Holy Spirit, the fruit of the spirit) in us, we eventually dry up, become brittle and good for nothing.  We can also fill ourselves up, even with the beneficial stuff, but leave it inside too long and get moldy, stinky and nasty.  Either way, anything but useable.

To summarize my harebrained example, in order for us to live in the manner worthy of our new identities in Christ, we have to allow ourselves to be filled with the Holy Spirit so that we can be useful.  By allowing Him to absorb into us, we can then exude the benevolent traits we’re called to … serving as a blessing to others as God works through us, putting us to use in a world-cleansing way.  We can ask Him to keep the harmful substances away from us so that we don’t apply damaging substances to those around us, and in the process spoiling the character God calls us to have.  Finally, we need to remain filled but only insofar as it relates to us using the good liquid in us and filling up with more good liquid … continuing to put it to use rather than keeping it in and letting it spoil.

Okay.  Enough strange illustrations.  I hope you catch my drift.

This week, let’s ask God to fill us more … now that we already have His Holy Spirit within our hearts … with desires to serve Him, to love others and to shine His light so that others will want to know what it’s about.  Let’s ask Him to make us good, clean, useful sponges.  Haha.

Praising the Lord for you,

MR