Lukisan: Johann Jungblut, Moonlit Nocturnal Cityscape, 1889
Colossians 3: 5-11
Christ is in all
A root of a tree sustains and supports the life of a tree. Surely, without a strong root, a tree cannot grow and florescent greenly. Similar to the root of the tree, the root of the Christian life of course is Christ. So a Christian has to return and root himself in Christ. Returning and rooting in Christ means a Christian wears the Christ thought, behaves, and acts just as Christ behaves and acts. The thought, the behavior, and the action of Christ always contradict earthly thought, behavior, and act.
The earthly life is the old self: fornication, uncleanness, inordinate affection, evil concupiscence, and covetousness. It means that this old self will not reach and achieve a self-integrity and genuine life. The old self that is earthly life just breaks and leads the self towards self-fragmentary and it is ugliness. The reason is that the earthly life is the life based on flesh which makes a long distance with God -the source of integrity and root of life-. God does not want that human lives based on earthly life which brings chaos. He wants that human lives in His commands that deliver order and perfection.
The earthly life harms not only the other but more to the doer. If one is conscious that the earthly life annihilates oneself, one will not want to rely on the earthly life. So we can say that the person who lives an earthy life is a person who does not know himself or does not understand his genuine will. He is trapped in his ignorance and darkness, so far from the light. That is why as the Colossians said, you must kill everything that belongs to earthly life.
Rooting in Christ also means giving rebirth to a new self. What is the new self? As mentioned above, the new self is to imitate Christ. To imitate Christ is first is to put off bad things such as anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, and filthy communication from the mouth. Secondly is to keep Christ in our hearts, our minds, our mouths, our action, and our body by listening and doing His words. Imitating Christ causes us to gain true knowledge and lovable person because we think, behave, and act as Christ thinks, behaves, and acts.
Christ is the perfection. If we root ourselves in the perfection -of Christ-, we will also participate in perfection. Christ’s perfection forms the new self which brings us to self-integrity that creates us as the image of Him. We have become the living image of Him which is renewed in the image of Him. In Christ and true knowledge, we see that there is no room for distinction. There is not again an earthly knowledge that divides anything leading to the fragmentary. True knowledge in the light of faith empowers us to know and understand that Christ is everything because our eyes of faith see that we derive from one bread, one body, and one cup of blessing that is Jesus Christ. All are united in Christ. In the end, we will be revealed with Him when He is revealed in his glory.
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