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Paul's Letter to the Colossians - 4
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Colossians 3:1-11 New International Version
Rules for Holy Living
Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. 2 Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things. 3 For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God. 4 When Christ, who is youra life, appears, then you also will appear with him in glory.
5 Put to death, therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly nature: sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires and greed, which is idolatry. 6 Because of these, the wrath of God is coming.b 7 You used to walk in these ways, in the life you once lived. 8 But now you must rid yourselves of all such things as these: anger, rage, malice, slander, and filthy language from your lips. 9 Do not lie to each other, since you have taken off your old self with its practices 10 and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge in the image of its Creator. 11 Here there is no Greek or Jew, circumcised or uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave or free, but Christ is all, and is in all.
Paul's Letter to the Colossians
I’m thinking that we should get our friends in the advertising business working on a campaign for next Easter based on this tag line—“come to church and watch someone rise from the dead.” The problem is, of course, that everyone would think we were talking about Jesus. That would only be half true. We would also be talking about the person in the tank.
There is no need here to enter into what could be a long and ultimately fruitless debate about the merits of particular forms of baptism, such as immersion and sprinkling and the appropriate age for baptism. What we can all agree on, I think, is that what Paul most likely had in mind when he wrote the words of our text is the practice of baptism in the early church and the significance of baptism in the life of the believer.
It is in Romans 6 that Paul speaks about baptism. Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? Therefore we have been buried with him by baptism into death, so that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of Father, so we too might walk in newness of life(Romans 6: 3, 4).
In Colossians 3, Paul begins to talk about the implications of who Christ is and what Christ has done for the believer. Basically he starts with this: remember what happened at your baptism. The old life died and your new life began! Will Willimon, a bishop in the United Methodist Church, tells a story about someone who witnessed a baptismal service at a creek. This child had never seen baptism by immersion and pronounced his verdict on the whole procedure: “If they’re not careful, they’re gonna’ kill somebody down there!” Which, of course, is exactly the point.
It’s a spiritual point. The amount of water used is not the issue. What is at stake is the result of the believer being incorporated into the body of Christ. Death and life is the issue—death to the old life that is pre-Christian and allowing the life that is ours through Christ to thrive.
It seems to me that behind what Paul is telling us is the realization that there is work to be done by the Christian. There is a danger here. This truth can be pushed to the point that grace no longer has a place in my life, that I can make it sound as if my spiritual formation is all up to me. That is not true. What is true is this: I must co-operate with God. Paul says Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth.
We need to spend some time here. Paul is talking about something that at the same time has happened and is happening. All of you will know what I am talking about and yet I know my words are not quite adequate to the task. When we become Christian it is God’s intention that spiritually the life of the earth-bound person dies and the life of Christ within us begins.
Forgive me for speaking personally but it’s the only way I know to approach this particular reality. I know for sure this happened in my life. There is no other way to explain the call of God in my life and my response to that call than this—the life of Christ is within me. That was what was symbolized when I gave the witness of baptism some 47 years ago.
However, the old life within me did not and has not died completely. By most standards that we would use I am not a terrible person. My personality is grating to some people, but that could be said of most of us. But I am acutely aware of a tendency toward selfishness, bitterness, and a desire for revenge when I don’t get my own way. There is no mistaking any of this for the life of Christ.
There is, therefore some sort of spiritual struggle going on within me. Here’s how Paul describes that struggle in one of his other letters. For I know that nothing good dwells within me, that is, in my flesh. I can will what is right, but I cannot do it. For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I do. Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I that do it, but sin that dwells within me (Romans 7:18–20).
The part that we are called to play in our own spiritual formation is setting our minds on Godly matters. Friends, I know you have heard me sing this chorus before, but in my opinion the best way to set our minds on Godly things, to aim our thoughts in the direction of heaven, is to become ever more familiar with the Bible, the Word of God.
Here I will pause for a commercial for the Blythwood congregation. We are inviting the whole of the church family to get involved, beginning October 24, in studying The Story, the whole of God’s Word presented not in chapters and verses but as a seamless narrative. Let me tell you what I know to be true about the study of the Bible. There is a hymn that I loved to sing years ago because of this one line—“the Lord has yet more light and truth to break forth from his Word” (We limit not the truth of God, #449, The Hymnary 1936). I do not mean to say that there are new and different revelations to be found in God’s Word. There are no secrets that will be revealed once you know the password and have paid the initiation fee. But the Word of God is the Word of God because it speaks with freshness every day, comfort to the sorrowful, challenge to the complacent, hope to the despairing, healing to the fearful. You cannot, on your own, bring the life of Christ to birth within you; you can do your part. Push your thoughts in God’s direction.
That is the goal. There are two things we must also do to help us in achieving that goal. As I understand them, they are not separate things; rather they are complimentary and accomplishing the one contributes to accomplishing the other. Take a look at these two verses. Put to death, therefore, whatever in you is earthly. That’s verse six; look also at verse 8: get rid of all such things—anger wrath, malice, slander and abusive language from your mouth.
There is a sense in which the putting to death part comes first, because Paul is talking about putting something else in the place that belongs only to God. The language used by Paul is quite strong. “It suggests that we are not simply to suppress or control evil acts and attitudes. We are to wipe them out, completely exterminate the old way of life. ‘Slay utterly’ may express its force” (The Expositor’s Bible Commentary, v. 11, p. 211).
I got an insight into this matter a couple of months ago listening to, of all people, Bob McCown on the Fan 590. They were talking about the golfer, Tiger Woods. Now you probably think you know where I’m headed on this one, but it’s idolatry not adultery that I want to deal with. Bob and his guest were discussing the difficulties that beset the life of Mr. Woods and his wife, Elin Nordegren. The conversation that day took up the topic of the amount of money that Ms. Nordegren might be seeking as part of a divorce. The subject of Tiger Wood’s net worth came up. The amount is pegged currently at about 900 million.
At first glance it would appear to you and me that no matter how that is split, it would be fine. There has been speculation that Ms. Nordegren is seeking 750 million, which leaves 150 million for Mr. Woods. That would be enough wouldn’t it? Not according to Bob McCown, who offered this insight: once some people get a bit of wealth, the only thing they want is more.
Andrew Carnegie, the Scottish-American steel tycoon said this: “Man must have an idol—the amassing of wealth is one of the worst species of idolatry. No idol more debasing than the worship of money. Whatever I engage in I must push inordinately therefore should I be careful to choose a life which will be the most elevating in character.To continue much longer overwhelmed by business cares and with most of my thoughts wholly upon the way to make more money in the shortest time, must degrade me beyond hope of permanent recovery” (Andrew Carnegie, Personal Memorandum, December 1868).
Paul is telling us this is such a spiritually vital matter that we must be on guard and mentally “execute” any desire on our part to put something in the place of God in our lives. Remember, to give God second place is to give God no place at all!
Then there is the second thing that Paul tells us to do; it’s in verse eight. I want to make a suggestion here. Remember what the goal is—to push our thoughts in God’s direction. At the end of this particular thought of Paul’s is this phrase—Christ is all and in all! He is talking about an end to those barriers that keep us separate from one another. Here is how Peterson puts it in The Message: “All the old fashions are now obsolete. Words like Jewish and non-Jewish, religious and irreligious, insider and outsider, uncivilized and uncouth, slave and free, mean nothing. From now on everyone is defined by Christ, everyone is included in Christ.”
How could such a life happen? Or perhaps a better question is this: what is preventing such a life from happening. Let me again quote Peterson’s paraphrase of Paul: “But you know better now, so make sure it’s all gone for good: bad temper, irritability, meanness, profanity, dirty talk. Don’t lie to one another.” All of it has to do with how we talk to one another. Some of us make excuses in this area of our living. “That’s just how I am. Other people are just going to have to get used to it.” So we go on allowing angry outbursts, simmering resentments, and the occasional gossipy tidbit.
I want to suggest to you this sort of behaviour is not without consequence, but in fact, makes a significant contribution to barriers going up between people, and being fortified and enhanced and looking for all the world like a permanent fixture of our lives.
Earlier this summer I was locked out of the house. Normally I have my house key on one part of my key ring but on this day it was on the other section that I had left on the hall table. It was not a huge issue; it had been raining, but had stopped; besides, there is a part of our deck that is covered by the overhang of the garage. I had my Mac book with me, so I got to work. About an hour later the clouds began to clear and there were hints of sun. What a perfect opportunity to put the Mac book under my arm and ride my bike to Starbucks for a tall London Fog—that’s an Earl Grey latte, delicious! All was well, until the clouds rolled in again and it began to rain. Not to worry; I was under a patio umbrella.
Let me cut to the chase. I got soaked on the way home. I took my shirt off, found a towel in the garage to get dry and tried to put the shirt on again. It felt terrible—cold, clammy, just not right. That’s what the old life is like for a Christian. It just does not feel right to put it on again. Next week we are going to continue in this chapter with the new clothes of the Christian life. In order for the new to fit, you need to get rid of the old. It should be, in fact, like the old you is dead!
