Colossians 3(05–11)

Introduction

Paul has been comparing and contrasting the Christless religion of the false teachers in Colosse with Christianity, which is a Christ-filled religion. The Christless religion of the false teachers appears to have been an amalgamation of Judaism and paganism. So, they appear to have taken bits and pieces from the Jewish religion and bits and pieces from paganism and combined them together to form their own brand of religion. For instance, from Judaism, they took the Old Testament laws about food and festivals; and from paganism, they took ideas about spiritual beings and magic and astrology. And their message appears to have been: Come to us and we’ll show you how to keep yourself safe from the evil spirits in the world. Come to us and we’ll show you how to reach up to heaven where the angels worship God. Come to us.

And I’ve suggested that the same kind of thing happens in every age, because people always turn to religion to help them deal with the sin and misery of their lives. But instead of seeking help from the one, true and living God, people flee from God. They repress what they already know about him and they turn from God to false gods and from the true religion to false religions, which are always Christless religions.

So, all over the world, people turn to one of the world religions such as Judaism or Islam or Buddhism. Or they turn to a cult or a religious sect. Or, they turn to one of the modern day isms or ideologies to help them make sense of the world. In previous weeks, I’ve mentioned scientism which is the belief that the natural world around us is all that there is; and that science is the best way or the only way to know the truth about reality. In that case, the way to know the truth is not by paying attention to our Bibles and believing what God has said, because only science can bring us to a knowledge of the truth. And those who turn to scientism believe that we can make a better world for ourselves and we can save ourselves from all that is troubling us through science and technology. And so, once we free ourselves from faith and religion, we can use science and technology to conquer all the evils in the world and we can have heaven here on earth.

And I also mentioned consumerism which is the belief that we can make a better world for ourselves through all the goods and services which we create and consume and enjoy. And once we spread wealth and prosperity throughout the nations, then everyone can benefit from these goods and services and we’ll have heaven here on earth.

And both of these things — scientism and consumerism and all the other isms and ideologies — are forms of belief. They are a kind of secular religion, or a religion without God and without Christ. And people rely on these things to make sense of the world and to help them deal with the sin and misery which fills their lives. They rely on these things to give them hope for the future and to comfort them in the face of life’s troubles and trials.

But it all pales in comparison to Christianity’s Christ-filled religion, because — as Paul has written in this letter — the Lord Jesus Christ is the image of the invisible God; and he’s supreme over creation, because all things were made through him; and he’s supreme over the new creation, because he was the first to be raised from the dead; and all the fullness of God dwells in him, because he is God and man in one person. That’s who he is. And because of what he has done for us — when he died on the cross and took the blame for what we have done wrong — God now forgives us all that we have ever done wrong. And because of what he has done for us, we don’t need to be afraid of any spirital force in the world, because he has stripped them of whatever power they once held over us. And, as we heard last week, we died with Christ and we have been raised with him. We died with Christ because our old life of unbelief and disobedience died when we first believed in Christ. And we were raised with Christ because, when we believed in him, we were raised with him to live a new life of faith and obedience.

And so, why would we ever settle for anything less than Christ, when Christ is so great and glorious and supreme over all and who alone can save us from our sin and misery in this life and the next?

And last week we heard that since we died with Christ and since we were raised with Christ, then we should set our hearts and our minds on things above, which Christ is, and not on earthly things. Paul says that in verses 1 and 2 of Colossians 3. And what that means in practice is set out for us in today’s passage. Setting our hearts and minds on things above, and not on earthly things, means getting rid of our old sins; and it means obeying God. It means getting rid of our old sins which belong to this old, fallen world; and it means living a life here on earth which it fitting for those who will live forever in the new creation.

And so, let’s turn now to verses 5 to 11, where Paul lists a number of down-to-earth and everyday sins which we need to get rid of. And instead of living sinful lives, we should live faithful and obedient lives here on earth.

Verses 5 to 8

In verse 5 Paul tells us to put to death, therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly nature. The NIV is interpreting Paul’s words here, instead of simply translating them, because Paul doesn’t use the word ‘nature’. Instead he tells us to put to death our earthly parts. And he means we’re to put to death whatever is earthly in us, and not heavenly. That is to say, put to death whatever is in you which belongs to this old, fallen, corrupt world, which is destined to perish. Put those things to death, because we now belong by faith to the new creation, where we will live with Christ forever.

And the idea of putting to death these things is interesting, because Paul has already told us that we have already died. We died with Christ when we first believed. We died with him to our old life of unbelief and disobedience. And since that’s already the case, you should now put to death whatever belongs to that old way of life, but which still lingers on in you.

I’m reminded of the house we lived in when we lived in Naas. And in the back garden, there was a small tree which the children used to climb; and they would sit on the branches or swing from them. And it was great fun. But one day, when several children were playing on it, the tree broke. The trunk snapped at the bottom and the whole thing came down. Fortunately, it came down slowly; and so, no one was hurt. And it turned out that while the tree still had leaves on its branches, it was really dead and the wood had dried up and become brittle, so that it broke easily. So, the tree was dead, but it still had some leaves on it. And believers have died. We died with Christ to the old life of unbelief and disobedience. But just as the tree kept its leaves, so we hold on to some of our old sins, which belong, not to the new life we have in Christ, but to that old life, which is the life of this old, fallen, corrupt world, which is destined to perish.

But we mustn’t let these sins linger on in our lives. We must be ruthless with ourselves and with our sins and put them to death. We must eradicate them from our lives. Those sins no longer belong in our life, because our new life in Christ is a heavenly life; and we must only do what is fitting for life in the new creation. And so, we must get rid of them.

And Paul goes on to list four kinds of sexual sin before mentioning greed, which, he says, is idolatry. However, we mustn’t think that this is a comprehensive list or a complete list. This is only a sample list. These are some of the sins which tend to linger on in our lives. And we must rid ourselves of these and similar sins. We must get rid of whatever belongs to this old, fallen, corrupt world.

Nevertheless, the sins he mentions specifically are sexual immorality and impurity and lust and evil desires. ‘Sexual immorality’ and ‘impurity’ refer generally to any kind of sinful sexual behaviour. And so, this means sleeping with someone who is not our spouse. However, God is not only concerned with what we do, because he’s also concerned with what is in our hearts and our imaginations as well. And so, Paul also mentions ‘lust’ and ‘evil desires’. He’s referring to our sinful thoughts and desires and passions, the kind of thing which can be provoked by pornography. Sex itself is good, because it was created by God. But like all of God’s good gifts, it can be misused and abused. And it was misused in the Roman Empire, where it seems it was normal for men to have multiple sexual partners — male and female. And a man could do what he liked, so long as he did not take advantage of one of his peers. And so it is in every age.

But this is not the way it was supposed to be, because God’s will for us is that sex is to be between a man and woman who are married to one another. And we were meant to live in a world where husbands and wives loved one another and were faithful to each other; and where children could grow up in a home which was loving and stable. We were meant to live in a world where people did not take advantage of others; and where no one would become a victim of abuse. That’s the kind of world we were meant to live in, before sin came into the world and spoiled it. And now that we’ve been raised with Christ to live a new life of faith and obedience, we’re to get rid of all such sins and we’re to live a life of faithfulness and purity, because that’s what is fitting for those who have been raised with Christ.

And Paul also mentions greed. He’s really referring to covetousness, which is the last of the Ten Commandments; and it refers to that sinful desire for what our neighbour has. So, instead of being thankful for what God has given us, we are dissatisfied; and we want what our neighbour has, whether it’s our neighbour’s house or his wife or whether it’s any of our neighbour’s possessions. We want what our neighbour has; and we resent our neighbour because of what he has.

And Paul says covetousness is idolatry. So, we’re meant to love God more than all other things. However, when we covet something, we love that thing more than we love God; and we want that thing more than we want to do God’s will. And so, covetousness, being greedy, is not just a sin against our neighbour, but it’s a sin against God. It’s about putting other things before God and it’s about loving created things more than we love our Creator. And so, it’s no surprise that Paul goes on to say that the wrath of God is coming because of these things. The wrath of God is coming because of covetous and greed, because the greedy person is an idolater, who has put others things before the Lord. And the wrath of God is coming because of sexual sins. The wrath of God is coming because of all these sins which belong to this old, fallen world, which is destined to perish. And it will perish, when Christ comes again to judge the living and the dead and to condemn all those who did not trust in him for forgiveness. He will come to condemn them.

But there will also be a new heaven and earth, or a renewed heaven and earth, where all who trusted in Christ will live with him forever. And in that new and better world to come, there will be not be any sin to spoil it. And since that’s our destiny, our lives in this present world are meant to foreshadow it. And so, Paul says to his readers in verse 7 that they used to walk in these ways. They used to commit these sins, before they believed in Christ. They used to do these things. But that old life has now died. That life of unbelief and disobedience has died. And they were raised with Christ to live a new life of obedience. And you too — if you believe in him — were raised with Christ to live a new life. And therefore you must put to death and get rid of whatever belongs to this old, fallen corrupt world, which is destined to perish.

And before we move on to the next point, let me remind you of the good news of the gospel, that all your sins have been covered over and blotted out because of the death of Christ on the cross. He gave up his life to pay for all your sins. He took the blame for all that you have done wrong. And so, because of Christ, God forgives all your sins: the sins you committed before you believed; and the sins you committed since you believed. His will for you is to put to death whatever belongs to this old, fallen world. Put it to death! But even those sins which linger on in your life are also pardoned because of the death of Christ on the cross.

Verses 8 and 9a

Let’s move on now to verse 8 and to the first part of verse 9 where Paul tells us to get rid of our sins. The image in verse 5 of putting our sins to death and the image in verse 8 of getting rid of our sins are similar to one another, aren’t they? We’re to put to death and get rid of our sins, because our sins do not belong in our new life with Christ.

And Paul goes on to list six kinds of social sins. So, there’s anger and rage and malice and slander and filthy language and then there’s lying to one another. ‘Anger’ and ‘rage’ are similar to one another. However, some of the commentators suggest that ‘anger’ refers to a more or less settled feeling of hatred towards someone; whereas ‘rage’ refers to an outburst of anger. Anger lasts a long time, whereas rage comes and goes.

A person who is malicious is someone who wants to cause us trouble. They want to do evil to us. And when we slander someone, we’re destroying their good reputation, aren’t we? The NIV has ‘filthy language’ next. That suggests that Paul is referring to what we might call ‘dirty talk’ or inappropriate sexual language. However, since the rest of the list is about anger, it’s more likely that Paul is referring to abusive speech. That is, it’s the sin of abusing other people by the things we say to them or about them. And Paul then refers to lying. It’s possible he has the false teachers in mind, who were deceiving the people with their false doctrine. But it’s perhaps more likely that he’s referring simply to deceiving one another by telling lies.

And what’s remarkable about this list of sins — which once again is only a sample list of sins — is that it’s so down-to-earth. These are every-day sins. These are the kinds of sins which we tolerate. We put up with them in ourselves and in other people. We think to ourselves, ‘That’s just the way that I am’ or ‘That’s just the way that person is.’ ‘He’s got a short fuse and there’s nothing we can do about it.’ And so, we put up with these things. Or we make excuses, don’t we? ‘I’m sorry I got angry, but you made me angry by what you did to me.’ ‘I’m not really slandering this person, but I just wanted to get your take on what he’s doing.’ ‘I know I lied to you, but I was afraid of what you might do to me if I told you the truth.’ We tolerate these sins and we excuse ourselves and others.

But Paul says that we’re to get rid of these things. Think of that drawer at home which is full of junk. And every time you open it, you say to yourself that you really need to have a clear out and get rid of this junk. And yet, the junk remains. And we see the junk in our lives, the persistent sins, the every-day sins, the ordinary sins. And from time to time we think that we must have a clear out and get rid of those sins. And yet the sins remain.

However, do you see the word ‘now’ in verse 8? Paul means that this is not the way we’re to live now that we have died with Christ and now that we’ve been raised with him. We mustn’t put up with these sins in our lives now that we have been raised with Christ. None of these sins belong in heaven above, where we now belong with Christ. And none of these sins belong in the new creation, where we will live forever with Christ. Our sins don’t belong. And so, we ought to get rid of them.

Verses 9b and 10

And in the rest of verse 9 and verse 10 Paul uses the image of taking off one set of clothes and putting on another set of clothes.

I should point out that he’s not commanding us to do this. This is not an imperative like we had in verse 5 and in verse 8. In verse 5 he told us to put to death whatever is earthly in us. In verse 8 he told us to get rid of our sins. But in verses 9 and 10 he describes what has already happened to us: you have already taken off one set of clothes and you have already put on another set of clothes. So, he’s not issuing us with a command, but he’s telling us about something that has already happened to us because of Christ.

The NIV says we have taken off our old self with its practices; and we have put on the new self which is being renewed. However, a more literal translation of what Paul wrote is that we have taken off the old man and we have put on the new man. And when Paul refers to the old man, he means something like the old humanity. And when Paul refers to the new man, he means something like the new humanity. In fact, some commentators think he’s referring to Adam and to Christ. By birth, we belong to Adam, who represents fallen, sinful humanity in rebellion against God. But through faith, we now belong to Christ. We’re incorporated into him. And the Lord Jesus therefore represents a new, or a renewed, humanity.

And so, Paul goes on to say that we have put on the new humanity, which is being renewed in knowledge in the image of its Creator. So, we’ve been incorporated into Christ, who is the image of the invisible God; and we are being renewed in that image, because God is at work in our lives to renew us. Paul doesn’t mention the Holy Spirit here, but in other places Paul makes clear that it is God who works in us by his Spirit to renew us in his image, so that we become more and more willing and able to do God’s will here on earth. And with the Spirit’s help, we’re able to get rid of the old sins which belong to Adam’s old humanity and which are not fitting for those who are part of Christ’s new humanity.

Think of it this way. Whenever someone becomes a postman, he’s given the appropriate uniform to wear. Whenever a schoolgirl becomes a pupil of a new school, she’s given the appropriate uniform to wear. And whenever someone is made a general in the army, he’s given the appropriate uniform to wear. And whenever we became a Christian, we were given a kind of uniform to wear. It’s the uniform of Christ’s new humanity. Or we might say it’s the uniform of a godly life. It’s the uniform of Christlikeness.

And just as the postman and schoolgirl and general must take off anything that doesn’t go with their uniform, so we must take off anything that doesn’t go with our godly life of Christlikeness. We must take it off. And it’s God who gives us the power to take these things off, because he gives us his Spirit to renew us in his image. He gives us the power, or the ability, to take these things off.

Sometimes he withholds his power so that we can’t get rid of some of our sins, no matter how much we pray and no matter how hard we try. And God does this to humble us and to remind us that we’re sinners who always need his forgiveness. Nevertheless, we must never be complacent, and we must always look to the Lord for his help to overcome our sins and to do only those things which are fitting for people who belong in the new creation, where we will live with the Lord forever.