"Lie not one to another, seeing that ye have put off the old man with his deeds; And have put on the new man, which is renewed in knowledge after the image of Him that created him:" (Colossians 3:9-10)
Sometimes an afterimage is all we have to go on. We see something about God and then close our eyes (for whatever reason, sleep, etc.). It doesn't take long for the image to fade and darkness envelop. Thing is, God is always looking at us from every angle and He likes what He sees. The trick is, learning to live in that light. The more we do, the more God builds us into who He thought we should be. And believe me, if you have some idea as to who you'd like to be, don't automatically think it's not God. Take any and every notion as to who you think you're becoming (or are, or would like to) and take it to God. When Paul says above to "lie not one to another", a broad way of looking at that is to see that if we're not becoming who we are in God, qualified, of course, with Paul's exhortation to be "renewed in knowledge after the image of Him", then we'll be lying. Plain. And simple.
"The light of the king's countenance is life; and his favour is as a cloud of the latter rain." (Proverbs 16:15)
I believe we are looking at God everywhere we go and with everyone and thing we encounter. And Jesus is the perfect example of "God in human form". When Paul says that we are "renewed in knowledge after the image of Him that created [us]", the only way we'll grow into that "image", of whom God sees when he looks at us, is to look at Him. And if the first sentence of this paragraph is indeed true (I don't mean to be circular or inscrutable here), then there is a disconnect somewhere if we don't know who we are.
"For the eyes of the Lord are over the righteous, and His ears are open unto their prayers: but the face of the Lord is against them that do evil." (1 Peter 3:12)
Them that do evil...
Lying is evil. Paul sews up his list of "deeds" with lying. His list includes things that look for all intents and purposes like they'd be worse. Things like "fornication", "malice, blasphemy, filthy communication out of your mouth". (see 3:5-8) All these things, when practiced by a Christian, are lying. It's not who we are. We are "renewed in knowledge" he says. In pulling this apart, we see that Paul is trying to get us to see that we are this new thing and that if we choose not to build upon it, we'll be lying. And God cannot shine on us if we're not living from the invisible qualities of the heart that are in line with Jesus. Paul suffered, as did Jesus, to get believers to see the simplicity that Jesus sought to bring into the world. So simple and counterintuitive to the dead way of thinking of "the old man", is "the mind of Christ" that Jesus had to die to prove His point.
"As in water face answereth to face, so the heart of man to man." (Proverbs 27:19)
This feels watery. Disjoint. But that's a good place to start.
"And the earth was without form, and void: and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters. And God said, Let there be light: and there was light." (Genesis 1:2-3)
