Putting On New Garments

Introduction

We are on week six of our journey through the letter to Colossians in which the overall supreme message of this portion of the Scriptures is Not Only Christ, but Christ Only.

Last week we began talking about some of the vices that according to the Scriptures we must continually be putting to death. Things we must take off as soiled old garments.

We need to continually put to death, take off: sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desires, greed, which we explained what does things mean last week

Today we will examine the clean new garments that we are suppose to put on by examining Colossians 3:12 more closely.

Vices and virtues are like the colors black and white. It is hard to describe one and understand it without comprehending its opposite. A vice by definition has a corresponding virtue. Colossians 3 has a parallel structure, with Colossians 3:5//3:12 and 3:6–9//13. The vices in 3:5 were outwardly directed toward others, and in 3:12, Paul outlines virtues for how we should treat others. The balance helps reinforce this isn’t a gospel of morality but of following Jesus.

In Colossians 3:5, the metaphor for handling vices was putting your body to death. In Colossians 3:12 the metaphor for living virtuously again involves the body, but this time in the types of clothes you wear. “Put on then…” the passage begins, and then lists actions related to following Jesus. Clothing is not simply a covering; it is something other people can see and use to form a judgment of you, without listening to anything you say.

Colossians 3:12 (LSB)

12 So, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, put on a heart of compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience;

“God’s elect” just a little on the idea of being elected by God. The Greek word here is eklektos which means elected or chosen.

No one is converted solely by his own choice, but only in response to God’s effectual, free, uninfluenced and sovereign grace.

John 15:16 (LSB)

16 “You did not choose Me but I chose you, and appointed you that you would go and bear fruit, and that your fruit would abide, so that whatever you ask of the Father in My name He may give to you.

Romans 8:29 (LSB)

29 Because those whom He foreknew, He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son, so that He would be the firstborn among many brothers;

Romans 9:15–16 (LSB)

15 For He says to Moses, “I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.”

16 So then it does not depend on the one who wills or the one who runs, but on God who has mercy.

Ephesians 1:4 (LSB)

4 just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we would be holy and blameless before Him in love,

2 Timothy 1:9 (LSB)

9 who has saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to His own purpose and grace which was given to us in Christ Jesus from all eternity,

1 Peter 1:1–2 (LSB)

1 Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, To those who reside as exiles, scattered throughout Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia, who are chosen

2 according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, by the sanctifying work of the Spirit, to the obedience of Jesus Christ and the sprinkling of His blood: May grace and peace be multiplied to you.

The fact that you are being moved into action by this gospel of truth is the direct consequence of the power and grace of God in selecting you from among those who are perishing.

Not because you deserved anything but because He just loved you ‘cause…

there is nothing you did or could do that you could boast (Eph 2:8-9)

And so you you are the elect are described as “holy and beloved” (v. 12). This identity is the opposite of someone who engages in sexual immorality and impurity. Compassion and kindness lead to humility, meekness, and patience. Again, this is moving in the opposite direction of passion leading to evil desires. These attitudes are also actions that, like clothing, are visible towards others. They are also outward focused and show people Jesus.

The Colossians position as chosen by God demanded that they live in a way that is in conformity with their position in Christ.

And we learned several weeks back about the word hagios holy, set apart, different from the rest, uncommon. An loved, agape.

Compassion: mercy, pity, understanding and sympathy. It is an inermost respose to the need of others… it is an innermost disposition that goes out to those who are suffering, distressed

a heart of compassion is a hebraism that connotes the internal organs of the body used figurative to describe the seat of emotions. We use this vernacular in our own speech patterns when we say things like “have a heart”

Jesus continuously displayed this disposition:

Matthew 9:36 (LSB)

36 And seeing the crowds, He felt compassion for them, because they were distressed and downcast like sheep without a shepherd.

kindness, which is the opposite of harshness or being severe, it is similar to compassion. This kindness is in word and deed, cloth yourself in sweetness rather than bitterness. People should know you to be slow to anger and to harshness.

Doing this in all humility which is a lowly attitude towards God recognizing that you are nothing before God. Most of the time when people offend you and you are indignant because someone did something to you, those feelings are generated because of the delusions of grandeur that we all have…

Philippians 2:5–8 (LSB)

5 Have this way of thinking in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus,

6 who, although existing in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped,

7 but emptied Himself, by taking the form of a slave, by being made in the likeness of men.

8 Being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.

This is the perfect antidote to the self-love that poisons human relationships

humility is not to be confused with low self esteem which undervalues that which God has deemed valuable.

humility is a submission attitude and not one of self-defeat… it is not a preoccupation with self.

Then their is gentleness, often translated as meekness which is the willingness to suffer injury or insult rather than inflict such hurt. You have heard the expression “I was just defending myself” this is opposite of gentleness/meekness. It is impossible to defend without hurting the person you are defending yourself from.

Isaiah 53:7 (LSB)

7 He was oppressed and He was afflicted, Yet He did not open His mouth; Like a lamb that is led to slaughter, And like a sheep that is silent before its shearers, So He did not open His mouth.

This is the attitude and behavior that the Lord had and it is befitting that His followers behave like him.

Matthew 11:29 (LSB)

29 “Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.

And of course none of this is possible without exercising great patience also translated “longsuffering,” the opposite of quick anger, resentment, or revenge and thus epitomizes Jesus Christ (1Ti 1:16; cf. 2Pe 3:15). It endures injustice and troublesome circumstances with hope for coming relief.

1 Timothy 1:16 (LSB)

16 Yet for this reason I was shown mercy, so that in me as the foremost, Christ Jesus might demonstrate all His patience as an example for those who are going to believe upon Him for eternal life.

2 Peter 3:15 (LSB)

15 and consider the patience of our Lord as salvation, just as also our beloved brother Paul, according to the wisdom given him, wrote to you,

1. Believers are described as “holy and beloved” (v. 12). This identity is the opposite of someone who engages in sexual immorality and impurity. Compassion and kindness lead to humility, meekness, and patience. Again, this is moving in the opposite direction of passion leading to evil desires. These attitudes are also actions that, like clothing, are visible towards others. They are also outward focused and show people Jesus.

2. Motivation is key. These virtues are not simply about trying hard and doing the right thing. They are actions rooted in the understanding of who God is and what God has done for his people. Believers are “God’s chosen ones” (v. 12). It is because God chose, loved, and died for believers that they are changed and able to live life in a completely new way.

When people look at you, do they see Christ?