Memorial Day - Israel Trip. Colossians 3:12-25
In
the section from Colossians 2:6 to 3:11
Paul really lays the foundation for our Christian life and Christian walk,
constantly going back to the baptism by means of the Holy Spirit which takes
place at the instant of salvation. At the instant of salvation every believer
is identified with Christ in His death, burial and resurrection and that that
instant simultaneous with the baptism by means of the Holy Spirit we are given
all of the spiritual blessings in the heavenlies,
according to Ephesians 1:3. Nothing has been left out. What we have to do is
learn what those blessings are so that we can live in light of those blessings.
That is really the focus in Colossians.
By the time we get down to verse 12 in
chapter three Paul is shifting gears to draw a conclusion in terms of some
behavioural mandates—behavioural mandates in terms of now that we
understand who we are in Christ and what we have been give, that necessitates a
change in certain behaviours and activities. He talks about this, as we have
covered in vv. 12-14, in terms of putting on a new set of clothes, a new dress
code. Colossians 3:12 NASB “So, as those who have been chosen of
God, holy and beloved, put on a heart of compassion, kindness, humility,
gentleness and patience. [13] bearing with one
another, and forgiving each other, whoever has a complaint against anyone; just
as the Lord forgave you, so also should you. [14]
Beyond all these things {put on} love, which is the perfect bond of unity”
– the ligament of maturity. Love is essential to reaching that ultimate goal of
spiritual growth and maturity.
Then Paul shifts again and begins to
use these injunctions to us, a third person type of imperative as opposed to a
second person imperative. We really don’t have a third person imperative in
English, and it is the idea of “let us” do something. It is really a command,
not a suggestion. Colossians 3:15 NASB “Let the peace of Christ rule
in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body; and be thankful.”
So again he is returning to that emphasis on the body of Christ. Then he says, [16] “Let the word of Christ richly dwell within you, with
all wisdom teaching and admonishing one another …” This is going to be a
tremendous verse to get into because it shows that part of the result of
letting the Word of Christ dwell in us richly is that it produces a result in
teaching and admonishing one another. But how? “With
psalms {and} hymns {and} spiritual songs, singing with thankfulness in your
hearts to God.” Just as a preview of what we will be getting to we should note
that the purpose of singing isn’t entertainment. It is not just to sing for
singing’s sake, but it is through the singing of psalms and hymns and spiritual
songs that the body of Christ learns and admonishes one another. It is an
aspect of teaching and correction. If singing isn’t accomplishing that because
of the words and the kind of music then it is a complete failure and is not
spiritual.
Colossians 3:17 NASB
“Whatever you do in word or deed, {do} all in the name of the Lord Jesus,
giving thanks through Him to God the Father.” This covers everything in life,
there is nothing untouched. Gratitude is to permeate everything.
Then from verse 18 on there
are various commands and instructions to different segments of the body of
Christ: to wives, to husbands, to children, parents, servants, and masters. It
concludes in verse 23, “Whatever you do, do your work heartily, as for the Lord
rather than for men.” So we are going to get into another sub-series on the
impact of the Word of God on family and marriage. Then the concluding part of
this chapter, vv. 24, 25, takes us back to the whole issue of inheritance for
the believer and that the motivation in the Christian life is not negatively by
the fear of losing salvation but the reality that we serve the Lord and are
motivated toward rewards for service. God uses both the carrot and the stick,
and the carrot involves inheritance and rewards. There will be distinctions at
the judgment seat of Christ between those who have served the Lord and those
who have served themselves. We only have those two options in life. We are
either living our life in service to God or we are living our life in service
to ourselves. Sometimes as we grow and mature there is a little bit more of one
than the other, but the ultimate goal is this goal of serving the Lord.
We can serve the Lord in
many different capacities. One of the first has to do with our area of
spiritual gift. We may not know our area of spiritual gift and we don’t have to
know our spiritual gift in order to serve in the capacity of our spiritual gift
because some spiritual gifts are broad categories such as serving or leadership
or teaching. These can be manifested in a lot of different ways like Sunday
school, Prep school or even outside the church in some different activities.
But there are many different ways in which people can serve in the local church
manifesting the gift of service. As long as we are growing as believers we are
going to manifest something in terms of our spiritual gift and we don’t have to
know it in order to do it.
This can be taught by using
the analogy of a young person growing up just normally and naturally. Everybody
has certain physical talents as well as intellectual abilities. As a person
growing up goes out and explores different things that he can do, these give
opportunities to explore capabilities, things that develop interests, things
that he might excel in, and as he grows and matures he gravitates to the areas
where he has strengths and stays away from things where he has weaknesses. The
same thing is true in the Christian life. A spiritual adolescent may not know
what his spiritual gift is but he is probably already using it, manifesting it
in some area. There is nothing that says we have to know our spiritual gift in
order to use it. What is essential is the mental attitude that underlies all
spiritual growth. That mental attitude is one of humility that usually
crystallizes in some sense in a person’s growth in a realisation that they have
been saved for a purpose and that their spiritual life is not just another
elective option in their life but it is the main thing. This is indicated in
Romans 12:1, 2. What Paul is getting at in Colossians chapter three is with
this whole series of commands he is what the believer is to do and how this is
to manifest in his service to God.
Romans 12:1 NASB
“Therefore I urge you brethren …” This is a word that is standard for Paul, he
uses it many times. It really has the idea of urging someone to a course of
action, challenging them to a course of action, pushing them in a certain
direction. “… by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy
sacrifice…” The phrase “by the mercies of God” has the idea of the means or
instrument, or the way in which something is accomplished. An instrumental
clause talks about the way in which something is done, and in this phrase what
Paul is expressing is that the way this is accomplished is through the grace of
God, on the basis of the grace of God; not on the basis of our own human
effort. A lot can be counterfeited by the works of the flesh. There are a lot
of excellent, moral people in the world and religions that emphasize morality
and ethics but know nothing of the grace of God. The spiritual life that we
live is on the basis of a walk by means of God the Holy Spirit. He is the one
who works in and through us to produce a character change, a transformational
change, and He only does that through the Word of God. Remember that in the
first eleven chapters of Romans Paul is talking about how a human being can be
justified before God. His answer is that God is does everything and all we do
is accept it. Grace is the foundation for everything Paul says in those first eleven
chapters. So on the basis of understanding everything that has been said in
those first eleven chapters and understanding the grace of God; he says on that
basis we are to do something. We are to present ourselves to God. It is the
expression of a mandate; this isn’t an option for the Christian life.
Paul says, “present your
bodies a living sacrifice, acceptable to God, {which is} your spiritual service
of worship.” The word “present,” paristemi,
is fundamental to Paul’s thinking already. In Romans 6:13 he said, “Don’t
present your members as instruments of unrighteousness to sin, but instead
present yourselves to God as being alive from the dead and your members as
instruments of righteousness to God… [16] Do you not know that when you present
yourselves to someone {as} slaves for obedience, you are slaves of the one whom
you obey, either of sin resulting in death, or of obedience resulting in
righteousness?” These are the only two options. If we present ourselves to our
sin nature then we become a slave to our sin nature, or if we present ourselves
to the service of God then that leads to righteousness, i.e. in the context
experiential righteousness in terms of spiritual growth. [19] “I am speaking in
human terms because of the weakness of your flesh. For just as you presented
your members as slaves to impurity and to lawlessness, resulting in {further}
lawlessness, so now present your members as slaves to righteousness, resulting
in sanctification.” That is the same idea as in Romans 12:1.
The idea of presenting
ourselves is the idea of presenting ourselves in service. The believer has to
make a decision to serve God on a moment-by-moment basis, and that service is
as much a sacrifice in serving God as it is for a soldier serving his country.
Paul uses this same imagery
in 2 Timothy 2:3 where he addresses specifically in relationship to his role as
a pastor. But this also applies to any believer in the Christian life. NASB
“Suffer hardship with {me,} as a good soldier of Christ Jesus.” “Suffer
hardship” is the Greek word sunkakopatheo,
which indicates a harsh suffering. You are going to miss out on things. It may
be a passive suffering where there are just certain benefits, certain aspects
of affluence or creature comforts that you are going to miss out on, but it
also may involve a much more active hostility and opposition, and maybe even
persecution. Paul says you must endure hardship. It is an aorist imperative.
You have to have this mental attitude that you are going to face whatever comes
in life because the higher goal is you are serving the Lord and whatever that
costs is irrelevant. He then expands on the analogy, [4] “No soldier in active
service entangles himself in the affairs of everyday life, so that he may
please the one who enlisted him as a soldier.” We are all engaged in spiritual
warfare. Whether we are active or AWOL we are still involved in spiritual warfare. Paul isn’t say
that we shouldn’t participate in a retirement plan or that we shouldn’t be
aware of what is going on in the political sphere, because that is also part of
our roles and responsibilities. But it doesn’t become a distraction; it is not
something that will interfere with our understanding of our true purpose and
goal and for the reason that God has saved us. The ultimate governing rule is
that we are there to serve the nation if we are a soldier, or in the spiritual
life it is about serving God. It is all about Him, it is not about me.
He then shifts to a second
metaphor in verse 5, using the athletic metaphor. 2 Timothy 2:5 NASB
“Also if anyone competes as an athlete, he does not win the prize unless he
competes according to the rules.” We have to understand that if we are going to
compete and win, or if we are going to truly serve in any capacity then we have
to set aside our own desires, our own agenda, for someone else.
Romans 12:2 NASB
“And do not be conformed to this world …” We have to be involved in a cleaning
out ceremony. We have been storing up a lot of garbage in our soul and we have
to get rid of that. All that garbage comes from the world system, the culture
around us, and we have been in a position where we have been constantly
conforming to the world’s standards and we have to change that modus operandi.
The way to do that is, “but be transformed by the renewing of your mind …” We
are transformed through the content of the Word; we are not transformed by
serving God. The key issue is having our thinking transformed before we start
to be effective at serving God. We have to quit being conformed to the world
and then be transformed by the “renewing,” the complete renovation of out
thinking. “… so that you may prove,” that is, to
demonstrate something in our life, “what the will of God is, that which is good
and acceptable and perfect.”
That takes us back to what
is going to happen in Colossians 3:15, the next command. And there is a series
of commands related to letting the peace of God rule in our hearts, letting the
Word of God richly dwell within us, and each of these categories is going to
take us to at least one or two lessons in understanding what these things mean
and how it is to transform our thinking.