Colossians 3:1-17

how many of you were at the friday youth event? It was fun wasn’t it? How many remember the part about the train and the track? What did the train represent/? our lives what did the track represent? God’s plan for our lives

This is a great way to intro todays passage. We are going to see how Paul explains how we should live as born-again Christians. Let’s pray: God, we know you are here, we know you want to teach us Your ways. Give us the desire to know You and follow Your ways. Help us hear You when You are speaking to us. Let us praise You and thank You. Please cover this room with Your blessing today. In Jesus name. Amen.

1 Since you have been raised to new life with Christ, set your sights on the realities of heaven, where Christ sits in the place of honor at God’s right hand.

Jon Courson’s Application Commentary (Chapter 3)

I am thoroughly convinced from watching people and studying the Word that the people who are truly content are those who constantly realize that this world is not where it’s at. On the other hand, those who try to find happiness here are perpetually frustrated. The possessions they purchase are never quite what they were supposed to be. The relationships they form are never as satisfying as they thought they would be. The dreams they pursue are never as fulfilling as they hoped they would be. Nothing is ever quite right until we realize, “Hey, it’s not here!”

I believe this is why the Lord constantly tells us in the Word to set our hearts on things above. People are bogged down, with stomachs churning, and hearts breaking because they are taking life on earth far too seriously. When a person finally understands that heaven is where it’s at, he is free to enjoy life. It doesn’t matter where he lives, what he does for work, what kind of car he drives, bike he rides, or skates he has.

Set your heart on things above. It’s a central message not only of Paul’s, but throughout all of Scripture. Live for heaven and you’ll enjoy life. How does that happen? Many ways, but I’ll suggest three.

1] we live for heaven through that which we treasure. Jesus said, “Wherever your treasure is, there will your heart be also” (Matthew 6:21).

Colossians 3:2 (NLT)

2 Think about the things of heaven, not the things of earth.

Jon Courson’s Application Commentary (Chapter 3)

When Jesus tells us to lay up treasure in heaven Matthew 6:20, it’s not God’s way of raising money. Knowing that where our treasure is, our heart will follow, it’s His way of raising our hearts and minds out of this world and up into heaven. You see, if you invest your treasure in a car manufacturer, that’s where your heart will be. If you put your treasure in your house or hobby, your heart will be there as well. Your heart follows your treasure. So one of the ways we get our hearts on things above is by investing in the kingdom.

2], we live for heaven through our trials. I am convinced God will send a trial a day your way just to keep you homesick for heaven. If He didn’t, we would become bound up in this earth and would miss out eternally on what He has in store for us.

A third way the Lord gets me to set my heart and mind on things above is by transfers—when the people we love precede us into heaven. This process is very important because when you have transferred friends, parents, and spouses into heaven, your heart longs to be there all the more keenly.

1] Treasures, 2] trials, and 3] transfers are three ways our hearts can be constantly set on things above.

Colossians 3:3

3 For you died to this life, and your real life is hidden with Christ in God.

How do we die to this life?

How can we find safety and life in this world? By realizing that we’re dead to this world and that a new life is being birthed in us through Christ.

4 And when Christ, who is your life, is revealed to the whole world, you will share in all his glory.

Jon Courson’s Application Commentary (Chapter 3)

The days are going by rapidly, gang. We are going to see Jesus soon, and when we do, we will say, “This is it! This is what we’ve been craving and longing for all our lives.” That is why I believe we can’t talk too much about heaven. And that’s why Paul tells us heaven is where our hearts should be. When Christ appears, it’s going to be glorious.

5 So put to death the sinful, earthly things lurking within you. Have nothing to do with sexual immorality, impurity, lust, and evil desires. Don’t be greedy, for a greedy person is an idolater, worshiping the things of this world.

Following Paul’s exhortation concerning how we should live for heaven in verses 1–4, in the remainder of the chapter, he turns our attention to how we should live on earth.

Paul for Everyone: The Prison Letters (Old Clothes, New Clothes (Colossians 3:5–11))

It was a Sunday in February. , there was a cross-country ski day each year. People came to the morning , and then set off in groups along different trails, graded according to whether they were fast, medium or slow. The 7 year old birthday girl and her dad joined the slow group, and very soon found themselves in a very slow group consisting of just the two of them. She fell down in the soft snow about every thirty strides, and she loved every minute of it as her dad picked her up again and again, and laughing, they kept going.

Eventually, tired but happy, they arrived back much later than they had intended. There was an anxious message from his wife: wondering where they were. The birthday party was due to begin in 20 minutes. They hurried home. Then came the key moment: getting a 7-year-old out of a full skiing suit, and getting her into the full outfit appropriate for a birthday party. Both elements of the process—putting off the old, and putting on the new—were complicated, but finally they did it and the party was succesful.

the young church in Colossae needed to know very clearly what’s involved in putting off the old clothes and putting on the new ones.

6 Because of these sins, the anger of God is coming.

7 You used to do these things when your life was still part of this world.

Jon Courson’s Application Commentary (Chapter 3)

Our culture says, “Live for your earthly desires”—yet covetousness is the cause of wars among nations and in relationships; pornography is a major reason for the breakdown of families and society; and evil desires have caused entire countries to collapse. Read history and you will find this to be so. Living for earthly desires brings death. Putting to death our earthly desires, however, brings life.

8 But now is the time to get rid of anger, rage, malicious behavior, slander, and dirty language.

The Greek word translated “anger” is orge, which refers to a slow, simmering emotion. It’s a festering, smoldering feeling—and it’s got to go

The Greek word translated “wrath” is thumos, which means “hot.” Wrath is like a volcano. Put it off, says Paul. Stuff a cork in it.

Malice is finding humor in another’s misfortune.

blasphemy, filthy communication out of your mouth.

Defined as “contempt for God or anything sacred,”blashpemy to have no part of our thinking or speaking.

9 Don’t lie to each other, for you have stripped off your old sinful nature and all its wicked deeds.

Jon Courson’s Application Commentary (Chapter 3)

The idea of lying here is that of bearing false witness. What is a false witness? In Matthew 26, we see the answer.…

Two false witnesses came forward and, referring to Jesus, said, “He said that if the temple was destroyed, He would raise it in three days.” Did Jesus say that? Yes—but He was talking about the temple of His body. Bearing false witness is giving the right information, but the wrong implication.

Today’s society is completely caught up in this. “I technically told the truth.” Yes, but did your hearer understand what you were really saying—or did you hide behind rhetoric to conceal the real implications? Scripture tells us that, like blasphemy, anger, and malice, this is something we are to choose to put off. No matter how tempting it is, we are not to use cleverness of speech or intellectual prowess to conceal the truth.

10 Put on your new nature, and be renewed as you learn to know your Creator and become like him.

11 In this new life, it doesn’t matter if you are a Jew or a Gentile, circumcised or uncircumcised, barbaric, uncivilized, slave, or free. Christ is all that matters, and he lives in all of us.

12 Since God chose you to be the holy people he loves, you must clothe yourselves with tenderhearted mercy, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience.

13 Make allowance for each other’s faults, and forgive anyone who offends you. Remember, the Lord forgave you, so you must forgive others.

14 Above all, clothe yourselves with love, which binds us all together in perfect harmony.

Jon Courson’s Application Commentary (Chapter 3)

“Put on the new man,” says Paul. “Put on mercy, kindness, and humility. Put on meekness, longsuffering, and love.” In short, put on Christ.

15 And let the peace that comes from Christ rule in your hearts. For as members of one body you are called to live in peace. And always be thankful.

Jon Courson’s Application Commentary (Chapter 3)

The word translated “rule” is a Greek word that describes an official at an athletic event, similar to a present-day umpire. People ask, “Should I move? Should I take that job? Should I marry him?” I often answer with a question: “What does your heart tell you? If you’re walking with the Lord, the peace of God will be an umpire in your heart, calling Safe! or Out!”

Women, when he asks you to marry him, don’t say yes if there isn’t a deep sense of peace in your heart. “You just have cold feet,” he’ll say. But I suggest to you it is much more than that. I suggest it is God working deep within your soul, whispering, “Don’t do it.” Don’t move, gang, without the peace of God umpiring and ruling in your heart.

The flip side is the man who says he has peace about divorcing his wife.

“Really?” I ask. “Why?”

“Well, I’ve prayed. I’ve fasted. I’ve sought God and I have peace.”

In response, I’ll say, “Jonah had peace, too. God told him to go to Nineveh, but he disobeyed and headed in the opposite direction to Tarsus. And guess what. There was a boat waiting for him because there’s always a boat waiting to take you in the opposite direction of God’s will—compliments of Satan. Such peace had Jonah about disobeying God that he even slept right through a storm.

Listening to our hearts can’t be the only criteria for determining God’s will because Jeremiah 17:9 says the heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked. That’s where the Word comes in.

16 Let the message about Christ, in all its richness, fill your lives. Teach and counsel each other with all the wisdom he gives. Sing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs to God with thankful hearts.

The Word is the final authority. When someone says they have peace about something that contradicts the Word, we should inform the person what the Word says about it.”Yes, the peace of God rules in your heart, but it will never contradict the wisdom of God as revealed in His Word.”

this is a part of what we do in Biblical Counseling. God is the counselor, not me. If I can show someone in the Bible what is going against His Word in their life, then they can decide to do something (change) about it. I’m just leading them to the water: they drink it.

17 And whatever you do or say, do it as a representative of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks through him to God the Father.

In other words, whatever you do, do everything in the nature and flavor of Jesus Christ.