SOUNDING OUT:
Mortify!
While reading Romans the other day, I was
prompted to check out the English word “mortify.”
I vaguely recalled the meaning of the word in English,
and thought I’d investigate further. The dictionary
said it meant, “To practice ascetic discipline
or self-denial of the body and its appetites.”
It comes from the French and Latin words meaning “to
kill.”
The Greek word for mortify
is thanatoõ, meaning to put to death
or kill. It is used eleven times in the New Testament.
Although it is used figuratively of being liberated
from the bond of anything or being made dead in relation
to something, the imagery is quite gruesome. Sometimes
I think we treat our old man too nicely, almost like
a dear friend. Instead we should be more vicious and
vehement. We should handle our old-man emotional states
and ways of thinking as intruders. We should be adamant
and resolved; too often we coddle or pamper what should
not be allowed to continue.
“Mortify” comes up again in Colossians.
Colossians 3:5:
Mortify therefore your members which are upon the earth;
fornication, uncleanness, inordinate affection, evil
concupiscence, and covetousness, which is idolatry:
