Emotional Religion Pitfalls

Ephesians 4: 24

King James Bible

And that ye put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness.

Twice a year in boarding school we had a week of prayer. These were often conducted by great preachers locally or from overseas. Twice a day for a week they would tell stories and experiences of the mighty power and self-sacrificing love of God. These stories would tell how God renewed the lives of great sinners. They also told of the terrible punishments that God would inflict on wanton sinners.

By the great culmination of the week of prayer series, on Friday nights, with soft music being played on the piano, the preacher would invite us up to the front to tell about our experiences. For an hour and many times longer than that one student after another would go forward and with lots of tears and sobbing the students would tell of their sins. They would bring up a pack of cigarettes or an evil book or an object they had stolen and throw it in a waste basket provided for that purpose, renouncing their old lives.

Then with deep fervor they would “put on the new man.” They would promise that from then on they would live the righteous life God had given them. On Sabbath morning we would witness the baptism of some of these students. I would sit there in the audience, but I would not feel the great emotion that the other students expressed. I did not go forward except on very rare occasions when peer pressure would force me to. On my part there was never any weeping or remorse, even though I counted myself as being a worse sinner than the others.

Like a new garment, this “new man”, would quickly become soiled and torn. I knew this from early experience—these twice annual weeks of prayer had been a part of my education ever since the first year I went to school. I knew what the result would be. The man of God who had brought about such a marvelous emotional transformation in every student would leave to conduct the next week of prayer at the next school. He would be rejoicing that “God had used him” to save so many lost sinners. The conference leaders would claim another great success and heap accolades on the preacher.

However, by Saturday night or Sunday at the latest, the “new man” of Friday night would be so stained and tattered as to be scarcely recognizable. None of these preachers ever showed us how to keep putting on a fresh “new man” every day. The penitents would rapidly sink into greater sin. They would deny the origin of the repentance they had professed and boldly blaspheme God.   

Like a vain dieter who discovers a new diet, loses 10 pounds in 3 weeks and then over the course of the next few months adds 15 pounds back on, becoming fatter and less healthy by each experience, the poor student would be plunged more deeply under the control of the devil.

Lord, create a new man of righteousness and true holiness for me today and see to it that I wear it today.