Having now Christ as my life and Christ as my object, I am given power over the motives that were mine before. The things that are around me have lost their force. The one object that the new life has is Christ—that which alone forms and governs this life is Christ. The soul of the believer being filled with Him, the things of the outward world have lost their force. His mind is filled with something else. The life that is in him is occupied with Christ.
The consequence of this is that outward things no longer exert influence over him. The “eye is single,” and the “whole body . . . is full of light.” Hence what excites the old man is not working now in that way. The thing manifested is the effect of Christ revealed to the new man—the new man living on Him.
The Apostle says, “Put on therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved.” He does not say, “You make out that you are ‘elect of God, holy and beloved.’ ” He says, “This is your place: I want you to live in the consciousness of this, and because you are such, you are to live and act in the good of that.”
There are affections and duties which flow from the place I am in. “Put on therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved.” Oh if my heart can live in that—in what I am—as elect of God, holy and beloved, I can put on anything then! If I live in the consciousness of my relationship—in the consciousness of what God is to me—these are the fruits that will follow: love, joy, peace, longsuffering, goodness, faith, meekness and temperance. But I must have love, joy and peace first. If I am perfectly happy in God, I do not mind if a person insults me.
From The Christian Friend, 1874