Clothed in Christ - Col. 3:12-17

Greetings

We are a people who care about God’s word and so we want everyone to have God’s word open in front of them

Intro - Dress code

My kids understand the dress code all too well - School dress code

Police - Doctors

They have a specific role and their attire helps them to stand out, to look the part for their role

When you are not wearing the proper attire, it draws the wrong kind of attention and someone ultimately says, “You shouldn’t be wearing that”

You show that you are a part of what is happening because you look the part

[Hook] This does not just apply to actual clothing and events

There is a way of conducting yourself so that you look the part of whatever you are claiming to be.

And when you are acting in a way that does not align with what you are claiming, you don’t look the part

Last week we saw that because our identity is in Christ, we must not live a lie, and put the old clothes of the world back on

When we live according to the lies of the world, we are wearing the wrong clothes

Though we claim to be following Christ, we don’t look the part!

But Paul admonished the church to live according to their new identity in Christ and he is going to continue the clothing theme in these next verses, showing us what it looks like to like according to our new identity in Christ

To be clothed in our conduct in such a way that we look the part - We look like our identity is in Christ.

So let’s give these words our full attention

[Col. 3:12-17] - Put on = clothe yourself

Big Idea: Our conduct with one another must be clothed in Christ.

When you follow Jesus by faith, you are a new creation and you are adopted into a new family. The new family is called the church, it is the group of those who follow Jesus by faith and are assembled together as one body, with Christ as the head

So, if he is the head, then our conduct together should not be marked by the lies of the world, but by him.

Our conduct, how we engage one another, should be the way that we look the part, following the dress code of being in Christ.

As if we were wearing Christ as the outward display of the fact that we are being changed to look more like him

[Bridge] So question we have to ask is: What does that look like? What will our lives look like if our conduct is clothed in Christ?

6 things [Yes, I said 6] that when we embrace them and make them our focus together, we will conduct ourselves with one another in a way that is clothed with Christ.

I am clothed in Christ when:

I belong to Christ (12a)

I want you notice that before Paul gets to what should be evident in your conduct, he starts with what is true about you and I.

“As God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved”

Chosen - Elect; God is the primary agent in salvation, choosing by his own decision whom he would make his own.

Now, as much as it might be tempting go down the theological rabbit hole to answer all of the questions we have about how that works, that is not Paul’s point here [There other passages for this]

Paul’s statement that we are chosen by God is not making a point about how that is true, but simply that it is true. [REPEAT]

And that truth is so important that he starts this section with it

So what does this have to do with how we clothe ourselves in Christ?

Paul is making a point about who we belong to and how we belong to him because it is going to impact how we engage life.

This phrase, “God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved” is coming from Deuteronomy 7:6–8

Moses is talking to Israel before they enter the promised land, telling them who they are as God’s people

It would have been easy for Israel, as God’s chosen people in the Old Testament to think that God had chosen them because they were so great or because they brought something to the table that God needed.

But here is what Moses says:

“For you are a people holy to the Lord your God. The Lord your God has chosen you to be a people for his treasured possession, out of all the peoples who are on the face of the earth. It was not because you were more in number than any other people that the Lord set his love on you and chose you, for you were the fewest of all peoples, but it is because the Lord loves you and is keeping the oath that he swore to your fathers…”

Why did God choose you? Because he loves you.

God did not choose Israel because of who they were

God chose Israel because of who he is and they are simply the benefactors of that.

And Paul is saying that for the church in Colossae, and by extension Christians today, it is the same

If you are in Christ, you are God’s chosen one’s - Saved by God because of who he is, not because of who you are or what you will do.

But it isn’t just that they are chosen by God, but they are holy and beloved (or dearly loved)

To be holy is to be set apart for God’s purposes - Not common, not like everything else. God chose you for his good purposes that you would live according to his will.

And not only that, but you are dearly loved - God has an affection for those who are his that he does not have for the rest of the world.

Yes, God does love the world, but he only loves as sons and daughters those who are his sons and daughters.

I love all of you, but not like I love my children.

So what is Paul saying?

He is making sure that we know that we belong to God and that God not only has a purpose for us but that he loves us

Now why would he need to do that?

Because if you think that God’s saving of you was somehow dependent on you

And if you think that his purposes for your life were based on your ability to fulfill them

And if you think that his love for you was dependent on your love for him

You would live in constant fear that you were ultimately going to screw up, lose his saving grace, miss his purposes for your life, lose his love for you.

Have you ever feared that? Have you ever looked at your life and the sin and the brokenness and the failures and thought, “God is surely done with me at this point.”

Look at me: Your salvation and God’s purposes and love were never dependent on you so it was never up to you to maintain them.

No, if you are in Christ you are chosen by him, holy and dearly loved.

And because of that, you belong to Christ and so you can live confidently in him, knowing that you are secure in him.

So we first have to be clothed in Christ by knowing that we belong to him and when we know that we belong to him, our conduct should flow out of that truth.

Then secondly, I am clothed in Christ when:

I imitate Christ (12b-14)

Paul gives us a list in v. 12 a lot like the list he gave in v. 5 and v. 8

This list of traits in v. 12 sits in obvious contradistinction from the list in 3:8 [READ THEM]

The logical connection should be obvious - If “anger, wrath, malice, slander, and obscene talk from your mouth” are relational markers of the old self, the rebellious, sinful self, then someone who is set apart for God’s purposes and is dearly loved by him should be clothed in “compassionate hearts [GUTS], kindness, humility, meekness, and patience”

V. 8 had five things that must be taken off

v. 12 has 5 things that must be put on

And just like the lists from last week’s passage, I don’t think that Paul wants us to scrutinize the terms and get into the minutia

Instead, I think he wants us to ask, “What is the link in all of these things?”

These are the marks of someone who is growing to look more like Jesus

We are God’s people, so we should reflect Christ - We should imitate his pattern of life and his teaching

He is merciful, compassionate, kind

Jesus humbled himself by giving up his rightful place in heaven and took on the form of a human, emptying himself for our sake.

Jesus said blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.

God is patient toward us, longsuffering in our sin. He does not have a short fuse, but is gentle in his correction and consistent in his grace.

And when we are a community of people who are clothed in Christ, our conduct with one another will look more and more like him.

We won’t be cold and calloused toward one another, compassion will flow from us toward one another, grieving with one another, weeping with one another, caring for one another.

We will not be harsh with one another, but kind.

We won’t be proud, we won’t be self seeking, we won’t be conceited and make everything about ourselves. We will be humble, willing to step aside for the sake of others.

We won’t be brash and make sure that we are heard - We will be meek, choosing to let our conduct reflect Christ than making our words heard.

We won’t be easily angered, but patient toward one another.

And you might be asking: how will we know that these things are marking our lives? What will be the things that would make it obvious that we have put these traits on?

We will bear with one another and forgive one another.

I will regularly point this out: Do you see how “bearing” and “forgiving” end in “-ing”?

That is the translators showing you that those words are Gk. participles.

Participles modify or inform the preceding verb.

The preceding verb is “Put on/Clothe yourself”

How do I know I have put on these things? How do I know that I am wearing the cloths of the new self?

Colossians 3:13 “bearing with one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other”

You know you have put on Christ when you put up with one another and you forgive one another.

Consider us as a church family - There is a lot to put up with and a lot to forgive!

We are people of all kinds of backgrounds, all kinds of experiences, and all kinds of varying levels of physical and spiritual maturity.

We have people here who are new believers, and some who have been believers for decades.

We are all at different points in our sanctification, so some of us don't look as much like Jesus as others.

We are all at different points in understanding the truth of scripture and need our understanding to be corrected from time to time

We all have certain ideas that are wrong and we act out of those wrong ideas and it causes problems among us

There is a lot to put up with!

What do you think is going to happen?

We are going to constantly sin, fail, stumble, and with the best of intentions still make plenty of mistakes that offend, hurt, and marginalize one another

Because though we are being changed, we are not fully changed yet.

And we will show that our conduct with one another is clothed in Christ when we bear with one another and forgive each other.

When we let those parts of our old self come out again - When we revert to old ways because we don’t perfectly look like Jesus and we are still being sanctified, still being conformed to his image, so the old self still shows up, we will confess it, repent of it

And we will forgive one another.

That’s not what the world does - That is not what the old self does - But it is what a community of those who belong to Christ does.

And just to make sure that we don’t make up our own rules about forgiveness, Paul gives us the pattern for our forgiveness

Colossians 3:13 “as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive.”

Wondering if you should forgive someone? Wondering if their offense warrants a withholding of forgiveness and a demand for payment and penance?

Just ask: Is that how God treated me and my sin?

Whatever reason i am giving for why I shouldn’t forgive them, is that how God responded to me when i asked for forgiveness?

Often, we justify our bitterness based on categories that we came up with - “Well I don’t have to forgive because ______”

But when we do this, when we say things like, “God forgives them, but I don’t” or “I don’t have to forgive them because [fill in the blank]” what we are saying is that their offense against us was greater than our offense against God.

This is why the parable of the unforgiving servant is in the Bible - Matthew 18:21-35 - Because to accept God’s forgiveness means to know just what an unpayable debt you owed

It is to embrace mercy and grace - Which also means being willing to give it

Listen to this summary by David Pao:

The significance of Paul’s point here is perhaps better appreciated if it is presented in a negative way: those who are not willing to forgive those who have sinned against them reject the principle of grace as manifested by Christ’s death on the cross… In other words, the refusal to practice the grace of God becomes an exceptional offense because it denies one’s ultimate dependence on God’s prior act of grace.

To refuse to forgive is to refuse grace entirely, including the grace God extends to you.

Now, I know that forgiveness is hard - Especially when we start to unpack all of the ways we have been wronged in this life.

Now forgiveness is not acting like it didn’t happen. It’s not setting yourself up for the same hurt again.

It is that you no longer demand payment for the wrong

So I am not saying that forgiveness must come easily - It can be very hard

I am not saying that forgiveness must come quickly - It does take time sometimes.

What I am saying is that those who are clothed in Christ will ultimately desire for it to come sincerely.

Because to be clothed in Christ is to imitate him.

And this is because we are ultimately a people who are marked by love

Colossians 3:14 “And above all these put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony.”

This is not love like the world talks about love - This is love like God talks about love.

Love is defined for us in two places, both by the apostle John

John 3:16 “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.”

1 John 4:9 “In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him.”

Taking these two verses together - Love is the giving of yourself, the laying aside of yourself, so that others might experience true life.

Love is the choice, not the feeling, the choice to not seek your own agenda, but to seek the good of others according to God’s purposes for them.

That’s why love binds all of these things in v. 12-14 together in perfect harmony - When I am not about myself, but am about my church family, when I put on love the rest will naturally follow as we imitate Christ.

That’s #2. The third aspect of being clothed in Christ is that…

I submit to Christ (15)

Colossians 3:15 “And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body.”

He starts with the word “Let”

“Let” in english mainly carries with it a request or seeking permission.

Let me have some dessert

But in Gk, the word that is translated “Let” is a command about the action itself

Like “let me in!”

There is a force, an emphasis behind it behind it

So let me summarize why that matters here

Paul is not asking them to give permission for the peace of Christ to rule in their hearts

He is commanding them to be ruled by the peace of Christ.

To put it another way: He is commanding them to submit to Christ in their midst.

Peace = Shalom - Things are the way they should be and there is nothing wrong. Things are the way God intends them to be.

It is not an internal feeling - It is an internal and external state of things

If I am living according to God’s design, so I have peace with God

If I am living with you according to God’s design, so I have peace with you.

So Paul is commanding them to be at peace with God and one another through Christ

Why would he have to command that?

Because when we allow other things to reign in our heart, when we allow other desires to become primary in our life, we have conflict with God and with one another.

James 4:1–4 (ESV)

What causes quarrels and what causes fights among you? Is it not this, that your passions are at war within you? You desire and do not have, so you murder. You covet and cannot obtain, so you fight and quarrel. You do not have, because you do not ask. You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, to spend it on your passions. You adulterous people! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.

That’s why Paul has to command it - Because we are prone, not to submitting to the peace of Christ, but rebelling and creating conflict.

Let me ask you: Where have you had conflict this past week? How was that conflict the result of your desires being at war within you?

I know that often when I have conflict in my life it is because I didn’t get what I wanted and I think you are to blame.

If we are to be clothed in Christ, we have to submit to Christ, seeing his way as good and desiring what he desires for us.

Only then can we live at peace with God and with one another.

And this is actually God’s intention for his church - v. 15b, “To which [the peace of Christ] indeed you were called in one body”

Unity is the mark of the Christian because we were called to one body, not to a divided body.

So where there is division, where there is conflict, it is because one or more of us are wearing the wrong clothes, the clothes of the old self, not the new self

But when we are clothed in Christ, we will submit to Christ and we will experience peace with God and with one another.

3 down, 3 to go

Fourth… I am clothed in Christ when…

I listen to Christ (16)

Colossians 3:16 “Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly”

“Let” again - Command, not asking permission.

If you are to be clothed in Christ, the word must dwell in you.

What does it mean for the word of Christ to dwell in you richly?

Dwell = Live

Richly = Abundantly

Summarize: Paul is saying that to be clothed in Christ means that the word of Christ has a central residence and role in all that we do as a church family.

That we not only know his word, but use his word when we meet together, when we spend time with one another during the week, when we engage our kids, or speak with our spouses

That the presence of God’s word in our lives is abundant.

[Contrast] But too often it can be hard to find God’s word anywhere where people claim to gather in his name.

We are constantly in danger of allowing worldly wisdom and ideas to infiltrate our church family and for us to see those ideas as being more attractive and giving them prominence.

[Correction] But Paul is saying that the word of Christ should be the main voice in our lives with one another

So what will it look like for the word of Christ to dwell richly in our midst?

Look for those “-ing” words - What will it look like?

First - Teaching/Admonishing one another

These are those same words from Col. 1:28, the positive and negative sides of teaching

Instructing in the truth

Warning against falsehoods

And the only way you can do both is if the word of Christ is dwelling in your hearts

When you do not know what God’s word says, you have absolutely no ability to discern truth from false teaching, and you are therefore in constant danger of being swept away by every wind and wave of doctrine.

But when the word of Christ is dwelling richly in our midst, we will know it and we will use it in one another’s lives.

But not foolishly, not harshly, not inconsistently - He says “in all wisdom.”

Wisdom as the ability to do it right - And Proverbs 9 and Psalm 111 both affirm that wisdom starts with being devoted to God

“The Fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom”

To be devoted to God is the starting point to being able to teach and admonish with wisdom

When the word of Christ dwells in us richly, it will cause us to instruct one another in the truth and to avoid falsehoods.

But it isn’t just in our instruction, he doesn’t just say “Teaching and admonishing”

It’s also in our singing.

How we sing reveals if the word of Christ is dwelling in us richly or not.

Now Paul gives three types of singing - Psalms and hymns and spiritual songs - We don’t really know a lot about these terms, but almost every time Paul stacks up similar terms like this, he is not intending for us to get into the weeds, but to see a whole picture.

Paul is saying, “If the word of Christ is dwelling in you richly, it will be evident in how you sing.”

So a few things to remember about our singing:

We sing true songs, not songs that make us feel good with bad theology.

We mean what we sing and we sing what we mean - We do not sing empty words, but we declare them as true

We sing like they are true and like we mean them.

I don’t know who said it originally, many have retweeted it without citing it at this point, but I heard a statement that is as true as anything else I have ever heard:

You know what a church believes by what it sings.

You know how much the church believes it by how it sings.

Church family: How has our singing displayed whether or not the word of Christ was dwelling in us richly?

May the word of Christ dwell richly in us that we might talk like it and sing like it.

Next, I am clothed in Christ when:

I live for Christ (17)

Colossians 3:17 “And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus…”

Used and abused - Name and claim

Let me say unequivocally: That is wrong.

In the name = For the sake

To do and speak in the name of Jesus is to look at what you are about to do or say and ask, “Would Jesus be okay with this?”

WWJD Bracelets

You will know that you are clothed in Christ when you are most concerned about what Jesus thinks about what you do and say

Rather than being concerned about what others think about what you do and say.

Fear of man is the opposite of doing everything in the name of the Lord Jesus.

But when

We belong to Christ

And we imitate Christ

And we submit to Christ

And we listen to Christ

We can do everything in the name of Christ, because we are clothed in him so we can live for him.

And lastly, I am clothed in Christ when…

I depend on Christ (15-17)

Three times Paul says to be thankful

Thanksgiving as a way of life - Reveals a knowledge of our need for God in our lives

Thanksgiving is the opposite of self-reliance and self-sufficiency

We need Christ

[CONCLUSION]

We are always in danger of putting on the old clothes and listening to the lies of the world

But we are a people whose identity is in Christ.

And when we:

Belong to Christ

Imitate Christ

Submit to Christ

Listen to Christ

Live for Christ

And Depend on Christ

We can know that we are clothed in Christ.

Amen.