Colossians: Christ Alone, Week 4

How to Live

Good morning, Harmony!

Last week in chapter 2 in our series in Colossians we talked about how Jesus is the answer, and we looked at those five answers that Paul gave as Jesus is the answer to maturity, to philosophy, to the law, to oppression, and to false religion.

Specific to last week what we saw was that Christ frees us from the Old Covenant Law, and in Christ we are now bound by the New Covenant Law.

Now some of those same elements of the Old Covenant are still present in the New Covenant. We’re going to see some of those today when we look at the first 17 verses of chapter 3.

In the last chapter, Paul was talking about how we are no longer bound by the covenant of the circumcision of the Law. Instead, Paul said we are bound by the covenant of the New Testament, the “circumcision of the flesh” that is different from the physical circumcision, this is a circumcision where we have put to death in our lives the things of this world and have instead become new creations with Christ in His resurrection.

We have died to self and been buried with Christ, and now on the other end we are raised to the newness of life - it’s one of the reasons we say when we are baptized that we have been buried in the likeness of His death and raised to walk in the newness of life, because when we place our faith and hope in Him, that is what takes place.

Now Baptism is a outward appearance of what has already taken place - it is an ordinance given to us by Christ in the Great Commission, but it is done as a public profession of faith in Christ so that everyone in the church family knows and can testify that you have made that public profession.

Now today, as we turn to chapter three, Paul has removed the veil of all of the heresy from chapters one and two, and now he is going to provide what it looks like to live in Christ.

Our main point for today is:

Main Point: With the acceptance of Christ alone as Savior and life example, Paul encourages the saints in how to live the life of a believer.

When we accept Christ as our Lord and Savior, our walk in Christ should demonstrate a life that is guided by the Holy Spirit.

This is not a legalistic mandate, or something that is forced upon you, rather your life should be so impacted by the Lord that you desire to live out His will and follow His example as His disciple.

After all, a disciple is sort of like an apprentice, only this translates to a whole life.

An apprentice learns from a master in a particular field, and in that process they learn how to do this particular skill a certain way.

If I were to go and apprentice under Paul for how to take care of floors for example, if I was true to my master trainer I would eventually adapt to his way of taking care of floors so well that eventually no one would be able to tell the difference between his floors and my floors.

In discipleship it goes one step farther, in that as a disciple what should be taking place is that we become so close to the Master that as we develop and grow as disciples we are looking more and more like our Master.

And some might say that’s impossible, because only Christ is the perfect, holy, and righteous person of God. And that would be true, none of us are able to attain that level of perfection. None of us are sinless while living in the flesh.

But what happens in chapter three is that Paul gives us some help. He says look, if you want to live like Christ, here’s some pointers. If you have these things, if your heart has been changed, then this is what that will look like.

And beginning in verse 1 Paul lays it out for them. Beginning in verse one Paul says:

Colossians 3:1–17 CSB

1 So if you have been raised with Christ, seek the 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 hidden with Christ in God. 4 When Christ, who is your life, appears, then you also will appear with him in glory. 5 Therefore, put to death what belongs to your earthly nature: sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desire, and greed, which is idolatry. 6 Because of these, God’s wrath is coming upon the disobedient, 7 and you once walked in these things when you were living in them. 8 But now, put away all the following: anger, wrath, malice, slander, and filthy language from your mouth. 9 Do not lie to one another, since you have put off the old self with its practices 10 and have put on the new self. You are being renewed in knowledge according to the image of your Creator. 11 In Christ there is not Greek and Jew, circumcision and uncircumcision, barbarian, Scythian, slave and free; but Christ is all and in all. 12 Therefore, as God’s chosen ones, holy and dearly loved, put on compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience, 13 bearing with one another and forgiving one another if anyone has a grievance against another. Just as the Lord has forgiven you, so you are also to forgive. 14 Above all, put on love, which is the perfect bond of unity. 15 And let the peace of Christ, to which you were also called in one body, rule your hearts. And be thankful. 16 Let the word of Christ dwell richly among you, in all wisdom teaching and admonishing one another through psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs, singing to God with gratitude in your hearts. 17 And whatever you do, in word or in deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.

Prayer.

As Paul is writing this, there are three specific ways that Paul encourages the believer in Christ as we seek to live like Christ.

The first way that Paul encourages us is he tells us that:

1. We are to be RAISED in the glory of Christ, vv. 1-4.

Paul says if you have been raised with Christ, that’s if you have received that new life in Christ, it’s time to have a different perspective.

He says set your mind on the Kingdom - not this earthly kingdom that you were trying to build for yourself, set your minds on the Kingdom of Christ.

We have a problem in the church today. Too many people are all about me and mine.

Too many people are worried about how to rule our own kingdoms.

And some of that has infected the church.

And I’m talking about the overall, big “C” universal church.

You see, a lot of churches can get into this mindset, where, we want to be the best church in the city. We want everyone to come here.

And many of them will do it because they honestly feel that their church is the best church in the city. If I’m entirely honest, I sometimes feel like Harmony is the best church in the city, and my pride swells up, and I do want everyone to come here.

Then God gets ahold of me, reminds me that I’m not here to build up my own kingdom, I’m here, we’re here, to build His Kingdom.

And doing that requires a change of perspective.

Because when I’m trying to build my own kingdom, I’m stepping on everyone else to get there. My pride takes over and I’m doing everything I can to get to the top and be the best at whatever it is that I have made my kingdom to be.

But when I’m trying to build His Kingdom, that looks very different. I’m partnering with other believers to build His Kingdom.

When we look at verse three my kingdom died. Paul says for you died - I don’t have a kingdom anymore, because that life is gone.

Your life is hidden with Christ in God.

If I have been raised with Christ and it is Christ that is living in me then I need to be seeking the things above, which is His Kingdom, and that is going to mean that I am no longer in control.

See having a Kingdom focus means that if I am living in Christ then He is living in me, and I am to have a Kingdom focus that represents Him well. That means that I should be living out the Life that Christ has given to me daily.

That way, when Christ appears, when it is time to be taken to our Heavenly home, we appear with Him in glory.

If I’m building this kingdom for myself over here, then what am I not doing for God’s Kingdom that I should be?

I want Harmony to grow and to flourish as a church, but if we’re doing that in a way that is detrimental to another local church, then we are not focusing on the Kingdom of Christ, we’re focusing on the kingdom of Harmony, and those are not the same thing.

And it doesn’t have to be the church. Probably most of the time it’s not the church.

Some of us may be so focused on our kingdom that we don’t give of our time or talent or resources to grow His Kingdom.

Some of us may be so focused on our kingdom of the American dream that we forget or set aside the Kingdom of Christ.

Some of us may be so focused on our kingdom of success that we chase that kingdom more than the Kingdom of Christ.

Paul says we are to be raised with Christ, and that means that we are focused on the Kingdom of Christ, we are to be allowing Christ to live in us so that we are building His Kingdom.

We are to be raised in the glory of Christ.

The second way that Paul encourages us is he tells us that:

2. We are to be RENEWED in the knowledge of Christ, vv. 5-11.

We covered how Christ is the answer to maturity and philosophy last week, but in verses 5 through 11 he clarifies what being renewed in Christ and the knowledge that we receive from that looks like.

Paul says put to death the earthly nature, and then he gives this list of what those things are. He says put these things to death in your life:

And it’s going to get real uncomfortable for some here today as we go through this list.

And starting with this first one and as we go through this list, I do want to say before we go through these, that if you have struggled with any of this in the past, and you have repented and you are free from this now or you are working through this, understand that this is not a guilt trip list. If you have been freed from these sins in your life then praise God you are free indeed.

But if as we are going through this list and God convicts you of something, I would encourage you to not go through this battle alone. Many of us have a past, and if you are in any part of this and need to seek help or counseling then know that you can get with me later or send me a message and we’ll get you the help you need.

But Paul gives this list as something that we have to put to death in our lives. He doesn’t say it will be easy, but this is something that we absolutely have to deal with as believers in Christ.

And Paul starts the list off with something that was rampant in the culture back then.

He starts the list with sexual immorality. And Paul isn’t just talking about homosexuality when he says that. The Greek word is pornia and it’s where we get the word pornography from. Paul is talking about every form of sexual immorality. Adultery, homosexuality, pornography. Paul says we must put that to death in order to be Kingdom focused, because if we are focused on those, we aren’t focused on His Kingdom.

Paul goes on and he says impurity and lust, two more sexually driven sins. Paul doesn’t hold back, and he says we must put these things to death. That means that men, when you look at that woman, regardless of her choice of attire and your mind starts to drift into impure or lustful thoughts, you have to put that to death.

Ladies, same thing when it’s that well sculpted man and your mind starts to drift.

Paul isn’t just addressing men. Ladies do it too.

Then Paul says evil desire and greed - desires to have it my way or the highway. This isn’t just talking about money, greed can be so much more than just money, this is just wanting more of something than anyone else has.

And then Paul closes that sentence with “which is idolatry.” Paul isn’t saying that greed is idolatry, Paul is saying that any of these elements, the sexual immorality, the impurity, the lust, the evil desire, the greed - all of it is idolatry, and that also means that any of these things are idolatry.

Paul says because of these things, because of this idolatry that is focused on building one’s own kingdom, God’s wrath is coming for the disobedient and at one point in time that was you.

You are new creations. Paul says this in 2 Corinthians 5:17

2 Corinthians 5:17 CSB

17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has passed away, and see, the new has come!

Paul is using this same mindset as he tells them to be raised with Christ - that’s new life - and because you are no longer that person, then you need to put them to death. As new creations, the Holy Spirit resides in you and directs you and guides you to reject these things, and believers in Christ are renewed from these things.

Paul goes on to say that believers in Christ need to put away another list.

He says put away - take this stuff and throw it away. Paul isn’t saying put it away until you need it again, he says literally take these things and remove them from the clutter of your life.

And again, same principle applies, if you’ve repented and cast these things away, you’re free from these, great, this isn’t meant to be a laundry list of guilt to bring back up.

But if you’re struggling with these things, then reach out to myself or a trusted friend, and get help.

And Paul says get rid of these things in your life:

Anger - Paul is talking about unrighteous, unholy anger and wrath, same thing. That anger and wrath that are there because of again, your Kingdom, not His Kingdom.

Malice and slander- tearing down someone else’s kingdom to make your kingdom better, when it’s not about you or your kingdom.

And filthy language from your mouth. Now a lot of people are going to relate that to cuss words, but that isn’t what context drives towards. Context drives towards abusive language towards others, and that can certainly involve cuss words, but that’s not the contextual sin part that Paul is talking about.

Paul isn’t saying don’t be passionate for the Lord, and he isn’t saying don’t care for others or for your country. What Paul is saying here is don’t be doing these things for your own edification.

In fact in verses 9 and 10 Paul says don’t lie to one another because you have died to self and have put on the new self that is being renewed in knowledge according to the image of your Creator.

Paul says look, you have been restored to a right relationship with the Lord through His blood and now you have received the knowledge according to the image of your creator.

Look, at one point in time I was a Windows guy.

And sometimes, well, sometimes Windows crashes.

And sometimes when it crashes, it needs restored.

A couple of months ago, the new church office computer had one of those moments.

We have had this new computer for about 6 months at the time, and it just decided to go all Windows blue screen on me.

And in that moment, as I’m working on this Windows PC, I remembered why I switched to Apple six years ago.

Once I remembered how to do a system restore, I got things working again. I had to restore it to a point before the corrupted file, in this case, had been installed.

Now when the computer came back up, it had all of the files on it that it had had before, minus the corrupted one.

When you received Christ, you were re-imaged and you began being renewed in the knowledge according to the image of Christ rather than the image of corruption.

The difference is that in that process, you began continually being renewed in the knowledge of Christ.

Paul doesn’t say you were renewed, now go and live perfect lives, no, Paul says you are actively being renewed.

That means that when we sin, and we are repentant of that sin, we are actively being renewed.

Death no longer has a grip on us. We don’t have to worry about that blue screen of death.

And Paul says in verse 11 that not only are the Jews being renewed, and not only are the Greeks being renewed, but this is for everyone!

Paul says believers in Christ focus on Christ. In Christ there is not Greek and Jew - that’s nationalism, so the church is not an American nor a Jewish nor a European thing, the Church is not founded nor built up by nationalism.

There is not circumcision nor uncircumcision - we are equally received by God based on our belief in Him crucified.

There is not barbarian - those that don’t speak Greek or Scythian, those that lived in a region north of the Black Sea - Christ isn’t interested in just seeking the civilized, He reaches to those uncivilized as well.

There is neither slave nor free - In Christ our social and economical status does not dictate who Christ favors.

Christ is all in all!

Christ renews all kinds of people!

Isn’t it a blessing to know that there is going to be all sorts of people in heaven that are not like you!

We are to be raised in the glory of Christ, we are to be renewed in the knowledge of Christ, and the third encouragement that Paul gives us is that:

3. We are to be RICH in the love of Christ, vv. 12-17.

We are to be rich in His love.

Verses 12 through 17 speak of the love that He has lavished us with.

Paul says we as believers in Christ are God’s chosen ones, holy and dearly loved!

Paul says we are raised to a new life because of His love for us, and because of that love we needed to put to death and put away those other things so that we can focus on building His Kingdom.

Now here, beginning in verse 12, we start to see what building His Kingdom entails.

He gives us another list.

He says put on compassion - it’s hard to be self-kingdom focused when we are compassionate toward others.

I can’t be building my own kingdom and be compassionate toward others at the same time.

Put on kindness.

Put on humility.

This Kingdom building list starts to sound like it’s all about others.

Put on gentleness.

Put on patience.

Here Paul isn’t saying pray for these things, he’s just saying put on the things that God has given you already as renewed individuals.

Bearing with each other and forgiving each other if there is a grievance between you.

That means taking an active role in both forgiving those that have transgressed against you and walking with that person through whatever steps are necessary to make it right from both sides, just as the Lord has forgiven you.

Verse 14 is the key of how to live - Above all, put on LOVE, which is the perfect bond of unity.

All of that list prior to this are elements of love.

To love someone it takes sacrifices of the things that we want to give of ourselves the compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience that all come from love that is the perfect bond of unity.

To be rich in the love of Christ is counter intuitive to our world today.

To be rich in love means that we are taking all of that garbage in our lives and placing it in the grave that it belongs in and to put on the renewing of our minds in the knowledge of Christ that is building His Kingdom that is designed on the basis of love for the Lord and love for others.

When we do that, verse 15 says, then we are letting the peace of Christ dwell in us. The peace of Christ that calls us to be one with Christ, then rules in our hearts. We become thankful because of what He does in and through us.

Paul closes this thought with words that encourage us to simply allow the Word of Christ, the gospel, dwell richly among us and to encourage through teaching and admonishing one another through psalms and songs, singing to God with gratitude in our hearts.

Singing to God, not to ourselves - when we look at the psalms and when we sing we need to be taking all of the words in and understanding that the style of our music and the people on stage do not matter, in that moment we are coming together to lift up our praises, our prayers, our worship to God not just because they are words someone is placing in front of us, but because they are words that we are lifting up to Him from the deepest parts of who we are. It is the Holy Spirit prompting us to worship Him and we are grateful to Him for that.

Finally, Paul says whatever you do, do it all in the name of Jesus, giving thanks to the Father through Him.

Are you raised in the glory of Christ, or are you still trying to build your kingdom?

Are you renewed in the knowledge of Christ, or is there something you still need to put to death in your life?

Are you rich in the love of Christ, or are you still buried in the burden of sin?

Where are you today?

Would you stand and pray with me?

Prayer.

As the music begins to play, if you’d like to know more about knowing Christ today or if you’ve made a decision to follow Christ today or if you need to talk about something that was said or some other decision that you’ve made today, I’d like to ask you to do one of two things.

On the screen behind be is a number and a QR code, you can simply scan that or text that number and I will receive that text and we can schedule a time to talk.

The other option is there is a connect card attached to the bulletin, you can simply fill that out and when the ushers come by here in a moment you can drop that in the offering plate.

I’m going to give you all just a moment as those decisions are being made, but I want to encourage you as perhaps you are struggling with that.

If there is something going on, and you know, you are struggling with whether or not you should fill out a card or send that text, maybe you don’t know how to word it or you’re worried about some sort of embarrassment, then here’s what I want you to do. I want you to take that card, fill it out, and just write “call me” on it. We’ll set up a time to talk and the details of that, but whatever it is I want you to know that you do not have to face that decision or that situation alone.

Prayer.

Let’s worship the Lord together in song.