Colossians 3(12–17)

Introduction

This is now our third week in Colossians 3 and we’ve seen how Paul uses different images to describe the new life we have in Christ and how we’re to live as his people in the world.

He’s used the image of dying and rising. So, just as Christ died and was raised, so we died with Christ and we were raised with him. We died in the sense that our old life without Christ, our old life of unbelief and disobedience, died when we believed in Christ. And we were then raised to begin a new life with Christ, a life of faith and obedience. So, that’s one of the images which Paul has used to describe the new life we have in Christ. And, as I said before, this is not just a metaphor. Paul is not saying that it’s as if we died, but we didn’t really die; and Paul is not saying that it’s as if we were raised, but we weren’t really raised. He’s not using metaphorical language. He’s saying that we really did die and we really were raised to begin a new life with Christ. We didn’t die physically, but we did die spiritually. We weren’t raised physically — though we will be raised physically when Christ comes again. But when we believed in Christ, we were raised spiritually.

That’s one of the images which Paul has used to describe the new life we have in Christ. But then he also used the image of things above and the image of earthly things. He said that we’re to set our hearts and minds on things above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. He’s referring to heaven above. So, set your hearts and minds on heavenly things and not on earthly things.

And when he refers to earthly things, he’s thinking of the sins which are associated with this old creation, which has been spoiled and corrupted because of Adam’s sin in the beginning and which is destined to perish when Christ comes again.

And when he refers to things above or to heavenly things, he’s thinking about the kind of life that is associated with heaven and with the new heavens and earth which are to come, where we will live in the presence of God forever.

So, earthly things refer to the sins of this old, fallen creation. And heavenly things refer to the kind of life that belongs in the new creation. Those who don’t believe in Christ have their hearts and minds set on sinful things which belong in this fallen world which is destined to perish. But Christians are to set our hearts and minds on heavenly things and we’re to live as those who belong, not to this fallen world, but to the new creation to come.

So, that’s another of the images Paul has been using. He’s been using the image of dying and rising: dying with Christ and rising with him to begin a new life. And he’s been using the image of earthly things and heavenly things. And he’s also used the image of the old humanity and the new humanity. The NIV refers in verse 9 and 10 to the old self and to the new self. But Paul is really writing about the old humanity and the new humanity. He’s referring to something which is bigger than ourselves. He’s referring to our place in the world as a member of Adam’s fallen humanity or as a member of Christ’s new humanity. By nature, or by birth, we are part of Adam’s fallen humanity, which was separated from God. But, whenever we believe in Christ, we take off that old humanity and put on Christ’s new humanity.

A child is taken from one school, which is failing. If he were to remain in that school, he wouldn’t get very far, because everyone who stays in that school fails their exams. But the child is taken from that failing school and is placed in another school, where everyone does well. Once he was destined to fail, but now he’s destined to succeed. And, so long as we remain part of the old, fallen humanity we are destined to fail. Worse: we are destined to perish forever. But whoever believes in Christ becomes part of the new humanity. And that person is now destined to do well and to have eternal life. But it’s not because of anything the person did. It’s because that person is now part of Christ’s new humanity.

So, those are three of the images which Paul has been using in this chapter. There’s the image of dying and rising with Christ. There’s the image of earthly things which are associated with this old, fallen creation; and heavenly things which are associated with the new creation to come. And there’s the image of putting off Adam’s old humanity and putting on Christ’s new humanity.

And that third image takes us to verse 11 of Colossians 3 which I didn’t have time to deal with last week. Paul says that here, in this new life in Christ, there is no Greek or Jew, circumcised or uncircumcised. He’s referring to the most basic divison among the people in Bible times: you were either an uncircumcised Greek or a circumcised Jew. When he refers to Greek, he’s thinking of the Gentile world. So, not just people who were from Greece, but people who were influenced by Greek culture, which was just about everyone in the world who wasn’t a Jew in those days. The world was divided into those two major groups. And, of course, the Jews looked down on their non-Jewish neighbours.

He then mentions barbarians and Scythians. If the Jews looked down on the non-Jews, the non-Jews looked down on the barbarians. The barbarians were all those who did not speak Greek. Apparently the word barbarian comes from the way the non-Greek speakers sounded to the Greeks. It was all bar-bar-bar-bar. Their words sounded like gibberish or nonsense to the Greek-speakers. And people who couldn’t speak Greek were regarded as uncultured or uncivilised. And the Greek-speakers regarded the Scythians as being even worse: they were only fit to be slaves.

And Paul also mentions slaves and free. So, there’s another division in the world. The distinction between Greek and Jews and barbarians and Scythians is about ethnic or national distinctions. The distinction between slaves and free is an economic or class distinction.

Paul is referring to some of the ways we divide up the population of the world. We’re not united, but we’re divided. We’re not together, but we’re separated from one another. There are these distinctions and divisions in this old, fallen world. But, says Paul, Christ is all and Christ is in all. When he says that Christ is all, he means that he embraces all of his people. All of his people are incorporated into him. We’re are joined together in him. It’s this idea again that we are part of something that is bigger than ourselves. Believers are not independent entities who are separated from one another, but we’re all joined together and incorporated into Christ. Think of the difference between, on the one hand, a bunch of strangers, standing about with nothing to do; and, on the other hand, an army. The members of the army are together. They’re wearing the same uniform and they’re marching in step with one another and they’re all heading in the same direction, following the same commander who is over them all. And Christ is over all of us and all of us — every believer throughout the world and throughout the ages — is united together under him.

And he is in all. So, he’s not separated from us, but he’s in us. He fills each one of us by his Spirit. We’re in him and he’s in us. This present world, this old, fallen creation, is divided. We’re separated from one another. There are all these distinctions and divisions. But believers are united together in Christ. We’re all members of Christ’s new humanity. No one is excluded from Christ because he’s a Jew or a Greek or because he’s a barbarian or Scythian or because he’s free or a slave. Those distinctions don’t matter when it comes to being in Christ, because we’re now part of the new creation to come; and these earthly distinctions don’t have any place in the new creation to come. Since we now belong to the new creation to come. we’re to live as people who are united and not divided.

Verses 12 to 14

And that takes us to the next verses, where Paul talks about the virtues we’re to put on. In the previous verses, he talked about the sins which divide us. So, he mentioned sexual immorality and lust which can break families apart. And he mentioned greed; and the greedy person resents his neighbour because of what his neighbour has. And Paul mentioned anger and rage and malice and slander and abusive language and lying. These things divide us. They separate us. And those things are part and parcel of Adam’s old, fallen humanity. But when we first believed, we took off Adam’s old, fallen humanity; and we put on Christ’s new humanity. And since we’ve put on Christ’s new humanity, then we should now clothe ourselves with the virtues and qualities which are fitting for those who are part of Christ’s new humanity.

Another way of putting this is that we should now clothe ourselves with the virtues and qualities which are fitting for God’s chosen people, who are holy and dearly loved. That’s how Paul describes us in verse 12. He’s taking words which once applied to the Israelites in the Old Testament and he’s now applying them to Christians today. We are God’s chosen people, because God chose us in Christ Jesus even before the world was made. So, before the world was made, and therefore before we existed, God chose us. He said to himself: ‘I want him. I want her. I want them to be with me forever.’ And because he chose us, he sent his Only-Begotten Son into the world to take the blame for what we have done wrong and to make peace for us with God, so that nothing can keep us from God’s holy presence.

And so, before the world was made, God chose us. And then, when the time was right, he made us holy. That is, he set us apart. The word holy means ‘set apart’. And God set his chosen people apart from those who don’t believe by enabling us to believe in his Son. He set us apart from everyone else to be his people in the world. And the reason he chose us in eternity and set us apart in time was because he loved us. And so, we are his dearly loved people. And why did he love us? There’s really no answer to that question. We don’t know why he set his love on us. But we do know that it’s got nothing to do with what we had done, because he loved us before the world was made and before we had done anything, whether good or bad. So, before we had done anything, God set his love on us. You watch dramas on TV and there’s someone’s son who is desperately trying to win his father’s love. He thinks to himself: ‘If I do this, if I do that, if only I can succeed in this way, then my father will love me.’ But God our Father loved us before we had done anything. We might say that he loved us because he loved us. There’s no other explanation; and it’s not because of anything we did in the past or might do in the future.

But here’s the thing: now that we know that we are dearly loved by God, and now that we know that he chose us and set us apart for himself, then we will want to live in a way that is pleasing to him. So, we’re not trying to earn his love. We’re not trying to earn his love, because he has always loved us with an everlasting love. But we want to respond to his great love for us by pleasing him in the way that we live.

And that means clothing ourselves with compassion and kindness and humility and gentleness and patience. These are the qualities which are fitting for those who belong to Christ’s new humanity. And, of course, these are the qualities which are fitting for those who belong to Christ’s new humanity because these are the qualities which Christ possesses. We’re to become like Christ. We’re to be renewed in his image.

Being compassionate means being concerned for someone who is suffering. Being kind means being generous towards others, because we care about what they’re going through and we want to help them. Being humble means being willing to serve others, instead of expecting them to serve us. Being gentle means making allowances for other people: making allowances for what they’re going through or making allowances for their weakness. Being patient means putting up with one another. And so, Paul goes on to say in verse 13 that we’re to bear with one another. And bearing with one another means forgiving one another. So, if I have some grievance with you, some complaint about something you’ve done, if you annoyed me in some way, I should be prepared to bear with you and forgive you. Of course, do you know what often happens in church? Someone has a grievance and they leave the church because of it. And perhaps someone goes round to their house to see if they’re okay, because they haven’t been to church for ages. And the person says they’re staying away because of what so-and-so did to them or said to them. But that’s not how we’re to behave. We’d expect that sort of behaviour from someone who still belongs to Adam’s old, fallen humanity. But we have taken off that old humanity and we have put on Christ’s new humanity. And therefore we should do as Christ does. And what does Christ do? Look at the end of verse 13: ‘the Lord forgave you’. The Lord forgave you; and so, you should be willing to forgive others. Think of the Lord’s parable of the unmerciful servant. The king forgave the servant a huge debt. But the servant then went out and refused to forgive his fellow servant a small debt. And Christ has forgiven us a huge debt: a lifetime of sin and shortcomings. And he expects us to forgive one another.

I was reading an essay on forgiveness by C.S. Lewis. He said that we confess in the Apostles’ Creed that we believe in the forgiveness of sins. But do we really believe in forgiveness? Lewis suggests that a lot of us believe, not in forgiveness, but in excuses. We make excuses to God and we make excuses to one another. ‘Please don’t hold my sins and shortcomings against me, because I have a very good reason for doing what I did and you should excuse me for it.’ And, of course, while we expect God and others to accept our excuses, we’re less inclined to accept the excuses of people who offend us. We think: my excuses are valid, whereas your’s are not.

However, we’re not to believe in excuses. We’re to believe in forgiveness. We confess to God and to others that we have no excuse and what we did was wrong and we are blameworthy. However, instead of holding it against me, will you forgive me? And the good news is that God is willing to forgive us because of Christ who paid for our sins and shortcomings with his life. And just as God is willing to forgive us, so we should be willing to forgive one another.

And so, we should put on all these virtues or qualities, because these are the qualties which are fitting for those who have put on Christ’s new humanity. And over all these, put on love, says Paul in verse 14. Paul is perhaps thinking of a person who has dressed herself in her clothes. But, before she leaves the house, she puts on an overcoat. And we’re to put on all these other qualities. And then, over them all, we’re to put on love. And love is the most important quality, isn’t it? The person who has love is the person who is compassionate and kind and humble and gentle and patient and forgiving. Without love, we cannot be any of these other things. But the person who has love has all the rest. Have you ever been in a house when someone has a turf fire going? It’s marvellous, because the smell of the turf fills the air. Or maybe you’ve been in a house when someone has been brewing real coffee and the smell of coffee fills the air. Think of love that way. It’s to be the aroma of your life so that wherever you go, love is to fill the atmosphere around you. People will look forward to seeing you, instead of dreading your arrival. And people will be sorry to see you leave, instead of hoping that you won’t stay long. God so loved the world that he gave his Son for us. And just as he loved the world, so we’re to love the people around us.

And Paul says about love that it binds all these qualities together in perfect unity. He might mean that love binds compassion and kindness and humility and so on into a perfect unity. But it’s perhaps more likely that he means that love binds God’s people together in perfect unity. When we’re lacking in love, and when we’re full of anger and rage and malice and slander and abusive speech and lies, then we’re divided, aren’t we? But when we’re full of love towards one another, and full of compassion and kindness and humility and gentleness and patience and when we’re willing to forgive, then we’ll have perfect unity, won’t we? We’ll have perfect unity, not because we’ll never fall out, but because, when we fall out, we sort it out quickly and put it behind us.

Verses 15 to 17

So, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourself with these virtues and qualities and bear with one another by forgiving one another. And above all, put on love, because love is able to produce perfect unity among God’s people. So, that’s verses 12 to 14.

The emphasis in verses 15 to 17 is on thanksgiving, isn’t it? ‘Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts … and be thankful.’ ‘Let the word of Christ dwell in you … as you sing with gratitude in your hearts to God.’ ‘And whatever you do … do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.’ Be thankful. Sing with gratitude. Giving thanks to God the Father. These verses emphasise how we’re to be thankful.

Notice, however, that Paul does not say why we should be thankful. He doesn’t say be thankful about x. He doesn’t say sing with gratitude because of y. He doesn’t say give thanks to God the Father for z. He doesn’t say why we should be thankful or for what. He simply says: Be thankful; and sing with gratitude; and giving thanks to God the Father. And so, why should we give thanks? We should be thankful for everything, because every good thing in our life has come to us from God. He’s the one who has given us our life; and he’s has filled our life with good things to enjoy, including our family and friends and work and rest and health and strength and daily food. And then, he’s given us a perfect Saviour who loved us and who gave up his life for us; and he’s given us his Spirit to enable us to repent and believe; and he’s given us new life in Christ; and he’s given us the church, where we enjoy the fellowship and help of other believers; and he’s given us the forgiveness of our sins; and he’s given us the hope of the resurrection of our bodies and everlasting life in the new creation to come. He’s given us material, physical things to enjoy and he’s given us spiritual things to enjoy. Whatever good thing we have, we have received from him.

And since it’s all come from him, then it’s appropriate for us to thank him for his good gifts. And giving thanks to him is important because it reminds us that we depend on him. We are not independent creatures. We are not self-sufficient. Those who remain in Adam’s old, fallen humanity regard themselves as independent. They believe they can manage fine on their own and they do not need to rely on God for anything. They believe that, by using their own ingenuity and intelligence and skill, they can conquer all the evils in the world and create heaven on earth. They think they don’t need God. And so, as Paul says about them in Romans 1, they neither glorify God nor give thanks to him. But the truth is that we depend on God for all things, because he is the source of all that is good. And having received his good gifts, we should be thankful. Every day we should thank him. And even when we go through troubles and trials in this life, we still have reason to thank him, because we believe he’s able to use these troubles and trials for a good purpose. And so, while our troubles and trials are painful, we are nevertheless grateful, because God wastes nothing and he uses even painful experiences for our benefit.

And so, we should be thankful; we should sing with gratitude to God; and we should give thanks to God the Father through Jesus Christ. But Paul also tells us to do three other things. Firstly, let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, since as members of one body you were called to peace. You were called to peace. You were called to live in peace with everyone and especially with your fellow believers. God has put us side by side with one another to form one body. We’re to live with one another. We’re to exist side by side. He has put us together as members of his new humanity. And so, we need to put up with one another and bear with one another and forgive one another. And the only way to do that is to let Christ’s peace rule our hearts. In other words, peace should govern our hearts. When sin governs our hearts, it says to us: ‘Don’t let him get away with that. Get your own back. Insist on your own way.’ But peace says to us: ‘Help him. Bear with her. Put up with them. Forgive him. Overlook what she has done to you.’ Peace says to us: ‘Forgive her, because Christ has forgiven you.’

And then, Paul says to us to let the word of Christ dwell in you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom, and as you sing psalms, hymns and spiritual songs. The word of Christ is the word about Christ. And since the whole Bible is about Christ in one way or another, then it means we’re to let God’s word dwell in us.

And it’s to dwell in us as we teach one another. When Paul mentions teaching one another, we may have in mind a classroom with a teacher at the front. Or we might have in mind a Bible study, with someone leading it. We might even have in mind a sermon on Sundays. But we teach one another when we’re talking to one another and when one of us reminds the other of something in God’s word which is applicable. For instance, if someone is worried or unwell, you might remind them of one of God’s promises to reassure that person. ‘Here’s a promise to reassure you of God’s love and faithfulness.’ And we also teach one another when we sing. When we come together for worship, we’re singing to God, aren’t we? Our worship is directed upwards to him and we give thanks to him for what he has done for us. But, in a sense, we’re also addressing one another, because we’re reminding one another of the things God has done for us. Someone comes to church and they’re anxious about something, or they’re in danger of giving up the faith. And when we stand to sing God’s praises, that person hears what we’re singing and he’s reminded of God’s goodness or he’s warned not to fall away.

The commentators discuss whether there’s a difference between psalms, hymns and spiritual songs. Are these three different kinds of song? Or are they three words for the same thing? In a sense it doesn’t matter. The point is that we’re able to minister to one another whenever we praise God.

And finally, Paul says that whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus. In other words, do it on his behalf. When I preach, I preach in the name of Christ. That is, I preach on his behalf. He’s in heaven, but he’s sent me to you to preach on his behalf. And he sends us all out into the world to love and serve the people around us on his behalf. So, if Christ were here, what would he do for this person? He would love this person, wouldn’t he? And so, he would be compassionate and kind and humble and gentle and patient with this person. And he would bear with this person’s faults and failings and he would forgive this person. If Christ were here, that’s what Christ would do. And so, you’re to say to yourself: ‘That’s how I’m to treat this person, because I’m to do everything in Christ’s name and on his behalf.’