Clothed in Christ - Col. 3:12-17 (2)

Intro - Dress code

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

A formal dinner

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.

Last week we saw that because our identity is in Christ, we must not live a lie, living according to the lies of the world.

What we saw was that there are inner realities and outward expressions in word and deed that belong to our old self and when we live according to those things, we are putting on the old clothes of rebellion and sin

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.

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 elements of dress - 6 things 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)

Chosen - Deut. 7:6-8

Belonging to Christ is about who God is

So remaining in Christ is about who God is

Holy and Beloved (dearly loved)

Holy - Set apart for his purposes

Beloved - Not a general love, but a love that he has for his children

Application - Confidence in your status before God

I imitate Christ (12b-14)

Cloth yourselves with:

Compassionate hearts (guts)

Kindness

Humility

Meekness

Patience

Contradistinction to v. 8 (Read)

How will we know we have put on these things?

Modifiers: Bearing and forgiving

Bearing - Putting up with one another

Forgiving - As the Lord has forgiven you

God’s forgiving work has been clearly detailed in this letter - To deny forgiveness to another is to deny forgiveness entirely

Link back to ch. 1-2 - 1:13-14, 20-22; 2:13-15

Colossians and Philemon Grace and Forgiveness

For the contemporary audience, 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. This point is best illustrated by Jesus’ parable of the unmerciful servant in Matt 18:21–35, where one finds the forgiven servant’s refusal to forgive someone indebted to him. More striking, however, is the fact that although Jesus encouraged his disciples to forgive seventy-seven times (18:22), the king immediately punishes this servant after this one offense. Behind this apparent inconsistency lies the central lesson of the parable, that those who refuse the principle of grace will not be forgiven: “This is how my heavenly Father will treat each of you unless you forgive your brother or sister from your heart” (18:35). 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.

Above all - Love, perfect harmony

Application - This is why belonging to Christ is the basis of everything else

If it is up to me to belong to Christ, it is also up to me to look like Christ

But if it is God who secures me in Christ, then it is also God who will make me look like him

I submit to Christ (15)

Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts

Let - Command about the peace, not asking for permission

Peace = Shalom

When there is conflict - James 4:1–4

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.

I listen to Christ (16)

Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly

Modifiers: Teaching, admonishing, and singing

Teaching and admonishing - How we talk to one another

Singing - The songs we sing are just as instructive as the words we speak

All the more today given the existential nature of our society

We must take care to sing true songs

I live for Christ (17)

In the name of Jesus Christ

For his sake

I depend on Christ (15-17)

Thanksgiving as a way of life - Knowing my need and rejecting self-reliance