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God give us wisdom which may bear fruit in our lives and produce a manner of life and
good conduct which shall be to the honour and glory of Christ.
"For ye have heard of my conversation (conduct) in time past in the Jews' religion,
how that beyond measure I persecuted the church of God, and wasted it" (Gal. 1: 13).
Paul was always conscious of his past life, for he had been an ardent Pharisee. He
wrote in I Cor. 15: 9 "For I am the least of the apostles, that am not meet to be called an
apostle, because I persecuted the church of God". The phrase "in time past" in the
quotation from Galatians above reminds us of Eph. 2: 2, where it says that in time past
we walked according to the course of this world. We can all praise God for His grace, for
His redemption, for the forgiveness of sins, and pray that we may in our conduct or walk,
live worthily of our calling.
"Let no man despise thy youth; but be thou an example of the believers, in word, in
conversation (conduct), in charity, in spirit, in faith, in purity" (I Tim. 4: 12).
Paul encourages Timothy and gives helpful advice. As we have seen in other
references, the manner of life (conduct) should be an example to others, and should
exhibit love and faith. The Word of God is the basis of his spiritual life and his ministry.
"That ye put off concerning the former conversation (conduct) the old man, which is
corrupt according to the deceitful lusts" (Eph. 4: 22),
and Paul continues "and be renewed in the spirit of your mind". Then he adds "and that
ye put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness".
Ephesians 4:-6: deals with the practical aspect of truth for the present day, and in
these few verses we have the very basis of our salvation and our faith. Our conduct in
time past was according to the old nature, or the old man. Now, we are renewed by the
Holy Spirit and we put on the new man, which is a new creation. As we live by God's
grace and are enjoying the renewal of the spirit of our mind, our lives should reflect that
grace to His honour and glory. So our conduct should be to His praise.
This article would be incomplete if we failed to mention that there are two Greek
words translated "conversation" with a meaning different from the passages we have
been studying. Politeuma occurs only once and is translated conversation. It means
citizenship or commonwealth:
"For our conversation (citizenship) is in heaven; from whence also we look for the
Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ" (Phil. 3: 20).
The other word, politeuo, means "to act as a citizen" and we quote:
"Only let your conversation (action bearing in mind your citizenship) be as it
becometh the gospel of Christ" (Phil. 1: 27).
Our hope is to be realized in the heavenly places where we sit at the right hand of
God. We are citizens of heaven, and we therefore should not live as citizens of earth, but
of heaven. We rejoice in the blessings that the Scriptures describe, but the greater our