"The Sufficiency of the Christian Life"

Colossians 3:1–25 (NASB95)

Therefore if you have been raised up with Christ, keep seeking the things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God.

Set your mind on the things above, not on the things that are on earth.

For you have died and your life is hidden with Christ in God.

When Christ, who is our life, is revealed, then you also will be revealed with Him in glory.

Therefore consider the members of your earthly body as dead to immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and greed, which amounts to idolatry.

For it is because of these things that the wrath of God will come upon the sons of disobedience,

and in them you also once walked, when you were living in them.

But now you also, put them all aside: anger, wrath, malice, slander, and abusive speech from your mouth.

Do not lie to one another, since you laid aside the old self with its evil practices,

and have put on the new self who is being renewed to a true knowledge according to the image of the One who created him—

a renewal in which there is no distinction between Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave and freeman, but Christ is all, and in all.

So, as those who have been chosen of God, holy and beloved, put on a heart of compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience;

bearing with one another, and forgiving each other, whoever has a complaint against anyone; just as the Lord forgave you, so also should you.

Beyond all these things put on love, which is the perfect bond of unity.

Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body; and be thankful.

Let the word of Christ richly dwell within you, with all wisdom teaching and admonishing one another with psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with thankfulness in your hearts to God.

Whatever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks through Him to God the Father.

Wives, be subject to your husbands, as is fitting in the Lord.

Husbands, love your wives and do not be embittered against them.

Children, be obedient to your parents in all things, for this is well-pleasing to the Lord.

Fathers, do not exasperate your children, so that they will not lose heart.

Slaves, in all things obey those who are your masters on earth, not with external service, as those who merely please men, but with sincerity of heart, fearing the Lord.

Whatever you do, do your work heartily, as for the Lord rather than for men,

knowing that from the Lord you will receive the reward of the inheritance. It is the Lord Christ whom you serve.

For he who does wrong will receive the consequences of the wrong which he has done, and that without partiality.

The Preacher’s Notebook: The Collected Quotes, Illustrations, and Prayers of John Stott Cyril Garbett’s Focus on Growth

“It was at Winchester and afterwards at York that his personality, while abating nothing of its force, lost almost all its harshness, as his kindlier virtues mellowed and matured and ripened in the golden autumn of his days.… I have tried to concentrate upon what to me is the supremely important and exciting thing—the spiritual growth of Cyril Garbett” (pp. 12–13).

“Throughout his life he was, in the fullest meaning of the word, a growing man” (p. 241).

“One of the most notable characteristics of great men is that they continue to develop as they grow older. While the majority of men reach their maturity somewhere in middle life, there are a few rare spirits who never lose this gift of growth; and assuredly Cyril Garbett was one of them. He was always looking forward. Even when his physical and intellectual powers began to fail, he was growing spiritually to the very end” (pp. 477–78).

SOURCE: Charles Smyth, Cyril Foster Garbett: Archbishop of York (Hodder and Stoughton, 1959).

I. The Christian life begins with a baptism in Christ

II. The Christian life is based upon a sound biblical worldview

A. Focus on a New Mindset

B. Focus on the New Self

ἀνακαινόω = renovate (“a renewal”)

III. The Christian life bears fruit in our walk in Christ

A. Concerning Ourselves

1. Put aside earthly desires

2. Put on godly characteristics

B. Concerning Our Families

1. Husbands love your Wives

Galatians 3:28 NASB95

There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free man, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus.

2. Wives submit to your Husbands

Colossians and Philemon: An Introduction and Commentary iv. New Life—At Home (3:18–4:1)

He offers a careful balance. Neither party is to be arrogant or domineering: Wives, submit to your husbands, as is fitting in the Lord. Husbands, love your wives and do not be harsh with them. The ‘submission’ here is not that of the slave, or the doormat. The equality of women and men before the Lord, of which Paul wrote in Galatians 3:28, has not been retracted: but neither does it mean identity of role or function. The wife must forgo the temptation to rule her husband’s life, using perhaps one of the many varieties of domestic blackmail; the husband must ensure that his love for his wife, like Christ’s for his people, always puts her interests first (see the fuller statement in Eph. 5:21–33). In particular, he must scrupulously avoid the temptation to resent her being the person she is, to become bitter or angry when she turns out to be, like him, a real human being, and not merely the projection of his own hopes or fantasies. It is when husbands and wives understand these guidelines and live by them that they are truly free: free to mature and develop, within the creative context of mutual love and respect.

3. Children obey your parents

4. Parents love your children

Colossians and Philemon: An Introduction and Commentary iv. New Life—At Home (3:18–4:1)

‘Embitter’ is literally ‘arouse’, usually in the bad sense of ‘provoke’. Paul refers to the constant nagging or belittling of a child (a sure sign of insecurity (see 3:8), this time on the part of the parent), the refusal V 12, p 153 p 153 to allow children to be people in their own right instead of carbon copies of their parents or their parents’ fantasies. Children treated like this became ‘discouraged’ or ‘dispirited’: hearing continually, both verbally and non-verbally, that they are of little value, they come to believe it, and either sink down in obedient self-hatred or over-react with boastful but anxious self-assertion.

C. Concerning Our Work

1. Work is an act of obedience to the Lord

2. Work is an act of worship to the Lord